The basin begins in the highlands of the East African Rift system with input from the Chambeshi River, the Uele and Ubangi Rivers in the upper reaches and the Lualaba River draining wetlands in the middle reaches. Due to the young age and active uplift of the East African Rift at the headlands, the river's yearly sediment load is very large but the drainage basin occupies large areas of low relief throughout much of its area.[1] The basin is a total of 3.7 million square kilometers and is home to some of the largest undisturbed stands of tropical rainforest on the planet, in addition to large wetlands. The basin ends where the river empties its load in the Gulf of Guinea on the Atlantic Ocean. The climate is equatorial tropical, with two rainy seasons including very high rainfalls, and high temperature year round. The basin is home to the endangered western lowland gorilla.

The Congo forest is an important biodiversity hotspot. It is home to okapi, bonobo and the Congo peafowl, but is also an important source of African teak, used for building furniture and flooring. An estimated 40 million people depend on these woodlands, surviving on traditional livelihoods. At a global level, Congo's forests act as the planet's second lung, counterpart to the rapidly dwindling Amazon. They are a huge "carbon sink," trapping carbon that could otherwise become carbon dioxide, the main cause of global warming. The Congo Basin holds roughly 8 percent of the world's forest-based carbon. These forests also affect rainfall across the North Atlantic. In other words, these distant forests are crucial to the future of climate stability, a bulwark against runaway climate change.

A moratorium on logging in the Congo forest was agreed with the World Bank and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (RDC, République Démocratique du Congo) in May 2002. The World Bank agreed to provide $90 million of development aid to RDC with the proviso that the government did not issue any new concessions granting logging companies rights to exploit the forest. The deal also prohibited the renewal of existing concessions.[2]

Greenpeace is calling on the World Bank to "think outside the box" and use the forest's potential in the battle against climate change. If these woodlands are deforested, the carbon they trap will be released into the atmosphere. It says that 8% of the Earth's forest-based carbon is stored in the RDC's forests. Predictions for future unabated deforestation estimate that by 2050 activities in the DRC will release roughly the same amount of carbon dioxide as the United Kingdom has emitted over the last 60 years.

The government has written a new forestry code that requires companies to invest in local development and follow a sustainable, twenty-five-year cycle of rotational logging. When a company is granted a concession from central government to log in Congo, it must sign an agreement with the local chiefs and hereditary land owners, who give permission for it to extract the trees in return for development packages. In theory, the companies must pay government nearly $18m rent a year for these concessions, of which 40% in taxes paid should be returned to provincial governments for investment in social development of the local population in the logged areas.

In its current form, the Kyoto protocol does not reward so-called "avoided deforestation" - initiatives that protect forest from being cut down. But many climate scientists and policymakers hope that negotiations for Kyoto's successor will include such measures. If this were the case, there could be a financial incentive for protecting forests.

The main Congolese environmental organization working to save the forests is an NGO called OCEAN, which serves as the link between international outfits like Greenpeace and local community groups in the concessions.

1.
Sedimentary rock
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Sedimentary rocks are types of rock that are formed by the deposition and subsequent cementation of that material at the Earths surface and within bodies of water. Sedimentation is the name for processes that cause mineral and/or organic particles to settle in place. The particles that form a rock by accumulating are called sediment. Sedimentation may also occur as minerals precipitate from solution or shells of aquatic creatures settle out of suspension. The sedimentary rock cover of the continents of the Earths crust is extensive, sedimentary rocks are only a thin veneer over a crust consisting mainly of igneous and metamorphic rocks. Sedimentary rocks are deposited in layers as strata, forming a structure called bedding, sedimentary rocks are also important sources of natural resources like coal, fossil fuels, drinking water or ores. The study of the sequence of rock strata is the main source for an understanding of the Earths history, including palaeogeography, paleoclimatology. The scientific discipline that studies the properties and origin of rocks is called sedimentology. Sedimentology is part of both geology and physical geography and overlaps partly with other disciplines in the Earth sciences, such as pedology, geomorphology, geochemistry, sedimentary rocks have also been found on Mars. Clastic sedimentary rocks are composed of rock fragments that were cemented by silicate minerals. Clastic rocks are composed largely of quartz, feldspar, rock fragments, clay minerals, and mica, any type of mineral may be present, clastic sedimentary rocks, are subdivided according to the dominant particle size. Most geologists use the Udden-Wentworth grain size scale and divide unconsolidated sediment into three fractions, gravel, sand, and mud and this tripartite subdivision is mirrored by the broad categories of rudites, arenites, and lutites, respectively, in older literature. The subdivision of these three categories is based on differences in clast shape, conglomerates and breccias), composition. Conglomerates are dominantly composed of rounded gravel, while breccias are composed of dominantly angular gravel, composition of framework grains The relative abundance of sand-sized framework grains determines the first word in a sandstone name. Naming depends on the dominance of the three most abundant components quartz, feldspar, or the lithic fragments that originated from other rocks, all other minerals are considered accessories and not used in the naming of the rock, regardless of abundance. Clean sandstones with open space are called arenites. Muddy sandstones with abundant muddy matrix are called wackes, six sandstone names are possible using the descriptors for grain composition and the amount of matrix. Mudrocks are sedimentary rocks composed of at least 50% silt- and clay-sized particles and these relatively fine-grained particles are commonly transported by turbulent flow in water or air, and deposited as the flow calms and the particles settle out of suspension

2.
Drainage basin
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A drainage basin or catchment area is any area of land where precipitation collects and drains off into a common outlet, such as into a river, bay, or other body of water. Drainage basins connect into other drainage basins at elevations in a hierarchical pattern, with smaller sub-drainage basins. Other terms used to describe drainage basins are catchment, catchment basin, drainage area, river basin and water basin. In closed drainage basins the water converges to a point inside the basin, known as a sink, which may be a permanent lake. The drainage basin acts as a funnel by collecting all the water within the covered by the basin. Each drainage basin is separated topographically from adjacent basins by a perimeter, drainage basins are similar but not identical to hydrologic units, which are drainage areas delineated so as to nest into a multi-level hierarchical drainage system. Hydrologic units are defined to allow multiple inlets, outlets, or sinks, in a strict sense, all drainage basins are hydrologic units but not all hydrologic units are drainage basins. Drainage basins of the oceans and seas of the world. Grey areas are endorheic basins that do not drain to the oceans, the following is a list of the major ocean basins, About 48. 7% of the worlds land drains to the Atlantic Ocean. The two major mediterranean seas of the world also flow to the Atlantic, The Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico basin includes most of the U. S. The Mediterranean Sea basin includes much of North Africa, east-central Africa, Southern, Central, and Eastern Europe, Turkey, and the areas of Israel, Lebanon. Just over 13% of the land in the world drains to the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Oceans drainage basin also comprises about 13% of Earths land. It drains the eastern coast of Africa, the coasts of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, the Indian subcontinent, Burma, antarctica comprises approximately eight percent of the Earths land. The five largest river basins, from largest to smallest, are the basins of the Amazon, the Río de la Plata, the Congo, the Nile, and the Mississippi. The three rivers that drain the most water, from most to least, are the Amazon, Ganga, endorheic drainage basins are inland basins that do not drain to an ocean. Around 18% of all land drains to endorheic lakes or seas or sinks, the largest of these consists of much of the interior of Asia, which drains into the Caspian Sea, the Aral Sea, and numerous smaller lakes. Some of these, such as the Great Basin, are not single drainage basins but collections of separate, in endorheic bodies of standing water where evaporation is the primary means of water loss, the water is typically more saline than the oceans. An extreme example of this is the Dead Sea, drainage basins have been historically important for determining territorial boundaries, particularly in regions where trade by water has been important

3.
Congo River
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The Congo River is a river in Africa. It is the second largest river in the world by discharge, the Congo-Chambeshi river has an overall length of 4,700 km, which makes it the ninth-longest river. Measured along the Lualaba, the Congo River has a length of 4,370 km. The Congo Basin has an area of about 4 million km2. The name River Congo originated from the Kingdom of Kongo which was located on the bank of the river. The kingdom in turn is named for the Bantu population, in the 17th century reported as Esikongo, South of the Kongo kingdom proper lay the similarly named Kakongo kingdom, mentioned in 1535. Abraham Ortelius in his map of 1564 labels as Manicongo the city at the mouth of the river. The tribal names in kongo possibly derive from a word for a gathering or tribal assembly. Little is known about the peoples of the inner Congo, but It is probable that the word Kongo itself implies a public gathering, the usual interpretations, admittedly unsatisfactory, make the mistake of being too concrete, for example, they may claim that Kongo comes from nkongo. The modern name of the Kongo people or Bakongo was introduced in the early 20th century, the name Zaire is from a Portuguese adaptation of a Kikongo word nzere, a truncation of nzadi o nzere. The Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo are named after it, the state of Zaire during 1971–1997 was also named after the river, after its name in French and Portuguese. The Congos drainage basin covers 4,014,500 square kilometres, the Congos discharge at its mouth ranges from 23,000 to 75,000 cubic metres per second, with an average of 41,000 cubic metres per second. The river and its tributaries flow through the Congo Rainforest, the second largest rain forest area in the world, second only to the Amazon Rainforest in South America. Because its drainage basin includes both north and south of the equator, its flow is stable, as there is always at least one part of the river experiencing a rainy season. The Chambeshi River in Zambia is generally taken as the source of the Congo in line with the accepted practice worldwide of using the longest tributary, as with the Nile River. The Congo River Basin is one of the distinct physiographic sections of the larger Mid-African province, sorted in order from the mouth heading upstream. Lower Congo Downstream of Kinshasa, there are no important tributaries, luvua Luapula Chambeshi Although the Livingstone Falls prevent access from the sea, nearly the entire Congo above them is readily navigable in sections, especially between Kinshasa and Kisangani. Large river steamers worked the river until quite recently, the Congo River still is a lifeline in a land with few roads or railways

4.
Central Africa
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Central Africa is the core region of the African continent which includes Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Rwanda. All of the states in the UN subregion of Middle Africa, plus those otherwise commonly reckoned in Central Africa, since its independence in 2011, South Sudan has also been commonly included in the region. The Central African Federation, also called the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, was made up of what are now the nations of Malawi, Zambia and these states are now typically considered part of Southern Africa. Archeological finds in Central Africa have been discovered dating back over 100,000 years, according to Zangato and Holl, there is evidence of iron-smelting in the Central African Republic and Cameroon that may date back to 3000 to 2500 BCE. Extensive walled settlements have recently found in Northeast Nigeria, approximately 60 km southwest of Lake Chad dating to the first millennium BCE. Trade and improved agricultural techniques supported more sophisticated societies, leading to the civilizations of Sao, Kanem, Bornu, Shilluk, Baguirmi. Around 1000 BCE, Bantu migrants had reached the Great Lakes Region in Central Africa, halfway through the first millennium BCE, the Bantu had also settled as far south as what is now Angola. The Sao civilization flourished from ca. the sixth century BCE to as late as the sixteenth century CE in northern Central Africa, the Sao lived by the Chari River south of Lake Chad in territory that later became part of Cameroon and Chad. They are the earliest people to have clear traces of their presence in the territory of modern Cameroon. Today, several groups of northern Cameroon and southern Chad. Sao artifacts show that they were skilled workers in bronze, copper, finds include bronze sculptures and terra cotta statues of human and animal figures, coins, funerary urns, household utensils, jewelry, highly decorated pottery, and spears. The largest Sao archaeological finds have been south of Lake Chad. The Kanem-Bornu Empire was centered in the Chad Basin and it was known as the Kanem Empire from the 9th century CE onward and lasted as the independent kingdom of Bornu until 1900. The history of the Empire is mainly known from the Royal Chronicle or Girgam discovered in 1851 by the German traveller Heinrich Barth, Kanem rose in the 8th century in the region to the north and east of Lake Chad. The Kanem empire went into decline, shrank, and in the 14th century was defeated by Bilala invaders from the Lake Fitri region, the Kanuri people led by the Sayfuwa migrated to the west and south of the lake, where they established the Bornu Empire. By the late 16th century the Bornu empire had expanded and recaptured the parts of Kanem that had been conquered by the Bulala, satellite states of Bornu included the Damagaram in the west and Baguirmi to the southeast of Lake Chad. The Shilluk Kingdom was centered in South Sudan from the 15th century from along a strip of land along the bank of White Nile. The capital and royal residence was in the town of Fashoda, the kingdom was founded during the mid-fifteenth century CE by its first ruler, Nyikang

5.
Equator
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The Equator usually refers to an imaginary line on the Earths surface equidistant from the North Pole and South Pole, dividing the Earth into the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere. The Equator is about 40,075 kilometres long, some 78. 7% lies across water and 21. 3% over land, other planets and astronomical bodies have equators similarly defined. Generally, an equator is the intersection of the surface of a sphere with the plane that is perpendicular to the spheres axis of rotation. The latitude of the Earths equator is by definition 0° of arc, the equator is the only line of latitude which is also a great circle — that is, one whose plane passes through the center of the globe. The plane of Earths equator when projected outwards to the celestial sphere defines the celestial equator, in the cycle of Earths seasons, the plane of the equator passes through the Sun twice per year, at the March and September equinoxes. To an observer on the Earth, the Sun appears to travel North or South over the equator at these times, light rays from the center of the Sun are perpendicular to the surface of the Earth at the point of solar noon on the Equator. Locations on the Equator experience the quickest sunrises and sunsets because the sun moves nearly perpendicular to the horizon for most of the year. The Earth bulges slightly at the Equator, the diameter of the Earth is 12,750 kilometres. Because the Earth spins to the east, spacecraft must also launch to the east to take advantage of this Earth-boost of speed, seasons result from the yearly revolution of the Earth around the Sun and the tilt of the Earths axis relative to the plane of revolution. During the year the northern and southern hemispheres are inclined toward or away from the sun according to Earths position in its orbit, the hemisphere inclined toward the sun receives more sunlight and is in summer, while the other hemisphere receives less sun and is in winter. At the equinoxes, the Earths axis is not tilted toward the sun, instead it is perpendicular to the sun meaning that the day is about 12 hours long, as is the night, across the whole of the Earth. Near the Equator there is distinction between summer, winter, autumn, or spring. The temperatures are usually high year-round—with the exception of high mountains in South America, the temperature at the Equator can plummet during rainstorms. In many tropical regions people identify two seasons, the wet season and the dry season, but many places close to the Equator are on the oceans or rainy throughout the year, the seasons can vary depending on elevation and proximity to an ocean. The Equator lies mostly on the three largest oceans, the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Indian Ocean. The highest point on the Equator is at the elevation of 4,690 metres, at 0°0′0″N 77°59′31″W and this is slightly above the snow line, and is the only place on the Equator where snow lies on the ground. At the Equator the snow line is around 1,000 metres lower than on Mount Everest, the Equator traverses the land of 11 countries, it also passes through two island nations, though without making a landfall in either. Starting at the Prime Meridian and heading eastwards, the Equator passes through, Despite its name, however, its island of Annobón is 155 km south of the Equator, and the rest of the country lies to the north

6.
Africa
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Africa is the worlds second-largest and second-most-populous continent. At about 30.3 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earths total surface area and 20.4 % of its land area. With 1.2 billion people as of 2016, it accounts for about 16% of the human population. The continent includes Madagascar and various archipelagos and it contains 54 fully recognized sovereign states, nine territories and two de facto independent states with limited or no recognition. Africas population is the youngest amongst all the continents, the age in 2012 was 19.7. Algeria is Africas largest country by area, and Nigeria by population, afarensis, Homo erectus, H. habilis and H. ergaster – with the earliest Homo sapiens found in Ethiopia being dated to circa 200,000 years ago. Africa straddles the equator and encompasses numerous climate areas, it is the continent to stretch from the northern temperate to southern temperate zones. Africa hosts a diversity of ethnicities, cultures and languages. In the late 19th century European countries colonized most of Africa, Africa also varies greatly with regard to environments, economics, historical ties and government systems. However, most present states in Africa originate from a process of decolonization in the 20th century, afri was a Latin name used to refer to the inhabitants of Africa, which in its widest sense referred to all lands south of the Mediterranean. This name seems to have referred to a native Libyan tribe. The name is connected with Hebrew or Phoenician ʿafar dust. The same word may be found in the name of the Banu Ifran from Algeria and Tripolitania, under Roman rule, Carthage became the capital of the province of Africa Proconsularis, which also included the coastal part of modern Libya. The Latin suffix -ica can sometimes be used to denote a land, the later Muslim kingdom of Ifriqiya, modern-day Tunisia, also preserved a form of the name. According to the Romans, Africa lay to the west of Egypt, while Asia was used to refer to Anatolia, as Europeans came to understand the real extent of the continent, the idea of Africa expanded with their knowledge. 25,4, whose descendants, he claimed, had invaded Libya, isidore of Seville in Etymologiae XIV.5.2. Suggests Africa comes from the Latin aprica, meaning sunny, massey, in 1881, stated that Africa is derived from the Egyptian af-rui-ka, meaning to turn toward the opening of the Ka. The Ka is the double of every person and the opening of the Ka refers to a womb or birthplace

7.
East African Rift
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The East African Rift is an active continental rift zone in East Africa. The EAR began developing around the onset of the Miocene, 22–25 million years ago, in the past, it was considered to be part of a larger Great Rift Valley that extended north to Asia Minor. As extension continues, lithospheric rupture will occur within 10 million years, the Somalian plate will break off, a series of distinct rift basins, the East African Rift System extends over thousands of kilometers. The EAR consists of two main branches, the Eastern Rift Valley includes the Main Ethiopian Rift, running eastward from the Afar Triple Junction, which continues south as the Kenyan Rift Valley. The Western Rift Valley includes the Albertine Rift, and farther south, to the north of the Afar Triple Junction, the rift follows one of two paths, west to the Red Sea Rift or east to the Aden Ridge in the Gulf of Aden. The EAR runs from the Afar Triple Junction in the Afar Triangle of Ethiopia through eastern Africa, the EAR transects through Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Zambia, Tanzania, Malawi and Mozambique. The Davie Ridge ranges between 30–120 km wide, with a west facing scarp along the half of its length that rises up to 2300 m above the sea floor. Its movement is concurrent with the EAR, over time, many theories have tried to clarify the evolution of the East African Rift. In 1972 it was proposed that the EAR was not caused by tectonic activity, others proposed an African superplume causing mantle deformation. However, the varying geochemical signatures of a suite of Ethiopian lavas suggest multiple plume sources, at least one of deep mantle origin, additionally, the subject of deep-rooted mantle plumes is still a matter of controversy, and therefore cannot be confirmed. The most recent and accepted view is the theory put forth in 2009, at that time it was suggested that lithospheric thinning generated volcanic activity, further increasing the magmatic processes at play such as intrusions and numerous small plumes. These processes further thin the lithosphere in saturated areas, forcing the thinning lithosphere to behave like a mid-ocean ridge, prior to rifting, enormous continental flood basalts erupted on the surface and uplift of the Ethiopian, Somalian, and East African plateaus occurred. The first stage of rifting of the EAR is characterized by rift localization, periods of extension alternated with times of relative inactivity. There was also the reactivation of a weakness in the crust, a suture zone of multiple cratons, displacement along large boundary faults. The second stage of rifting is characterized by the deactivation of large boundary faults, the development of internal fault segments, today, the narrow rift segments of the East African Rift system form zones of localized strain. These rifts are the result of the actions of numerous faults which are typical of all tectonic rift zones. The African continental crust is generally cool and strong, many cratons are found throughout the EAR, such as the Tanzania and Kaapvaal cratons. The cratons are thick, and have survived for billions of years with little tectonic activity and they are characterized by greenstone belts, tonalites, and other high-grade metamorphic lithologies

8.
Tropical rainforest
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True rainforests are typically found between 10 degrees north and south of the equator, they are a sub-set of the tropical forest biome that occurs roughly within the 28 degree latitudes. Within the World Wildlife Funds biome classification, tropical rainforests are a type of tropical moist broadleaf forest that includes the more extensive tropical seasonal forests. Tropical rainforests can be characterized in two words, hot and wet, mean monthly temperatures exceed 18 °C during all months of the year. Average annual rainfall is no less than 1,680 mm and this high level of precipitation often results in poor soils due to leaching of soluble nutrients in the ground. Tropical rainforests exhibit high levels of biodiversity, around 40% to 75% of all biotic species are indigenous to the rainforests. Rainforests are home to half of all the animal and plant species on the planet. Two-thirds of all flowering plants can be found in rainforests, a single hectare of rainforest may contain 42,000 different species of insect, up to 807 trees of 313 species and 1,500 species of higher plants. Tropical rainforests have been called the worlds largest pharmacy, because over one quarter of natural medicines have been discovered within them and it is likely that there may be many millions of species of plants, insects and microorganisms still undiscovered in tropical rainforests. Tropical rainforests are among the most threatened ecosystems globally due to large-scale fragmentation as a result of human activity, habitat fragmentation caused by geological processes such as volcanism and climate change occurred in the past, and have been identified as important drivers of speciation. However, fast human driven habitat destruction is suspected to be one of the causes of species extinction. Tropical rain forests have been subjected to heavy logging and agricultural clearance throughout the 20th century, tropical rainforests have existed on earth for hundreds of millions of years. Most tropical rainforests today are on fragments of the Mesozoic era supercontinent of Gondwana, the separation of the landmass resulted in a great loss of amphibian diversity while at the same time the drier climate spurred the diversification of reptiles. The division left tropical rainforests located in five regions of the world, tropical America, Africa, Southeast Asia, Madagascar. However, the specifics of the origin of rainforests remain uncertain due to a fossil record. Several biomes comprise the general term tropical forest, Lowland equatorial evergreen rain forests are forests which receive rainfall throughout the year. These true rainforests occur in a belt around the equator, with the largest areas in the Amazon basin of South America, the Congo Basin of Central Africa, Borneo, Mindanao, Indonesia, and New Guinea. Moist tropical seasonal forests receive high rainfall with a warm summer wet season. Some trees in these forests drop some or all of their leaves during the dry season

9.
Gulf of Guinea
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The Gulf of Guinea is the northeasternmost part of the tropical Atlantic Ocean between Cape Lopez in Gabon, north and west to Cape Palmas in Liberia. The intersection of the Equator and Prime Meridian is in the gulf, among the many rivers that drain into the Gulf of Guinea are the Niger and the Volta. The coastline on the gulf includes the Bight of Benin and the Bight of Bonny, the Niger River in particular deposited organic sediments out to sea over millions of years which became crude oil. The origin of the name Guinea is thought to be an area in the region, bovill gives a thorough description, The name Guinea is usually said to have been a corrupt form of the name Ghana, picked up by the Portuguese in the Maghrib. The present writer finds this unacceptable, the name Guinea has been in use both in the Maghrib and in Europe long before Prince Henrys time. A passage in Leo points to Guinea having been a form of Jenne, less famous than Ghana but nevertheless for many centuries famed in the Maghrib as a great market. The relevant passage reads, The Kingdom of Ghinea. called by the merchants of our nation Gheneoa, by the inhabitants thereof Genni and by the Portugals. But it seems probable that Guinea derives from aguinaou, the Berber for Negro. Marrakech has a gate, built in the century, called the Bab Aguinaou. The modern application of the name Guinea to the coast dates only from 1481, the name Guinea is still attached to the names of three countries in Africa, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, and Equatorial Guinea, as well as New Guinea in Melanesia. The main river shedding its waters in the gulf is the Niger River, the Gulf of Guinea contains a number of islands, the largest of which are in a southwest-northeast chain, forming part of the Cameroon line of volcanoes. Annobón, also known as Pagalu or Pigalu, is an island that is part of Equatorial Guinea, bobowasi Island is an island off the west coast of Africa in the Gulf of Guinea that is part of Western region Ghana. Bioko is an island off the west coast of Africa in the Gulf of Guinea that is part of Equatorial Guinea, corisco is an island belonging to Equatorial Guinea. Elobey Grande and Elobey Chico are two small islands belonging to Equatorial Guinea, São Tomé and Príncipe is a Portuguese-speaking island nation in the Gulf of Guinea that became independent from Portugal in 1975. It is located off the western equatorial coast of Africa and consists of two islands, São Tomé and Príncipe and they are located about 140 kilometres apart and about 250 and 225 kilometres, respectively, off the northwestern coast of Gabon. Both islands are part of a volcanic mountain range. São Tomé, the southern island, is situated just north of the Equator. Media related to Gulf of Guinea at Wikimedia Commons The Gulf of Guinea Commission - CGG - GGC

10.
Atlantic Ocean
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The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the worlds oceans with a total area of about 106,460,000 square kilometres. It covers approximately 20 percent of the Earths surface and about 29 percent of its surface area. It separates the Old World from the New World, the Atlantic Ocean occupies an elongated, S-shaped basin extending longitudinally between Eurasia and Africa to the east, and the Americas to the west. The Equatorial Counter Current subdivides it into the North Atlantic Ocean, in contrast, the term Atlantic originally referred specifically to the Atlas Mountains in Morocco and the sea off the Strait of Gibraltar and the North African coast. The Greek word thalassa has been reused by scientists for the huge Panthalassa ocean that surrounded the supercontinent Pangaea hundreds of years ago. The term Aethiopian Ocean, derived from Ancient Ethiopia, was applied to the Southern Atlantic as late as the mid-19th century, many Irish or British people refer to the United States and Canada as across the pond, and vice versa. The Black Atlantic refers to the role of ocean in shaping black peoples history. Irish migration to the US is meant when the term The Green Atlantic is used, the term Red Atlantic has been used in reference to the Marxian concept of an Atlantic working class, as well as to the Atlantic experience of indigenous Americans. Correspondingly, the extent and number of oceans and seas varies, the Atlantic Ocean is bounded on the west by North and South America. It connects to the Arctic Ocean through the Denmark Strait, Greenland Sea, Norwegian Sea, to the east, the boundaries of the ocean proper are Europe, the Strait of Gibraltar and Africa. In the southeast, the Atlantic merges into the Indian Ocean, the 20° East meridian, running south from Cape Agulhas to Antarctica defines its border. In the 1953 definition it extends south to Antarctica, while in later maps it is bounded at the 60° parallel by the Southern Ocean, the Atlantic has irregular coasts indented by numerous bays, gulfs, and seas. Including these marginal seas the coast line of the Atlantic measures 111,866 km compared to 135,663 km for the Pacific. Including its marginal seas, the Atlantic covers an area of 106,460,000 km2 or 23. 5% of the ocean and has a volume of 310,410,900 km3 or 23. 3%. Excluding its marginal seas, the Atlantic covers 81,760,000 km2 and has a volume of 305,811,900 km3, the North Atlantic covers 41,490,000 km2 and the South Atlantic 40,270,000 km2. The average depth is 3,646 m and the maximum depth, the bathymetry of the Atlantic is dominated by a submarine mountain range called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It runs from 87°N or 300 km south of the North Pole to the subantarctic Bouvet Island at 42°S, the MAR divides the Atlantic longitudinally into two halves, in each of which a series of basins are delimited by secondary, transverse ridges. The MAR reaches above 2000 m along most of its length, the MAR is a barrier for bottom water, but at these two transform faults deep water currents can pass from one side to the other

11.
Western lowland gorilla
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It is the gorilla most often found in zoos. The western lowland gorilla is the smallest subspecies of gorilla but nevertheless still a primate of exceptional size and this species of gorillas exhibits pronounced sexual dimorphism. They possess no tails and have jet black skin along with black hair that covers their entire body except for the face, ears, hands. The hair on the back and rump of males takes on a grey coloration and is also lost as they get progressively older and this coloration is the reason why older males are known as silverbacks. Their hands are large with nails on all digits, similar to that of a humans. They have short muzzles, a prominent brow ridge, large nostrils, other features are large muscles in the jaw region along with broad and strong teeth. Among these teeth are strong sets of canines, and large molars in the back of the mouth for grinding vegetables. A male standing erect can be 1. 5–1.8 m tall, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, the average male is 168 kg and stands upright at 163 cm. Males in captivity, however, are noted to be capable of reaching weights up to 275 kg, females stand 1.5 m tall and weigh half as much as males. According to the late John Aspinall a silverback gorilla in his prime has the strength of seven or eight Olympic weightlifters. Western gorillas frequently stand upright, but walk in a hunched, quadrupedal fashion, with hands curled and this style of movement requires long arms, which works for western gorillas because the arm span of gorillas is larger than their standing height. The average size of the western lowland gorillas reproductive organ is typically between 30–40 cm inches long, and it stops growing after a few years of agecitation needed. Western lowland gorilla groups travel within a home range averaging 8–45 km2, gorillas do not display territorial behavior, and neighboring groups often overlap ranges. Gorillas normally travel 5–3 km per day, populations feeding on high-energy foods that vary spatially and seasonally tend to have greater day ranges than those feeding on lower-quality but more consistently available foods. Larger groups travel greater distances in order to obtain sufficient food, human hunters and leopards can also influence the movement patterns. It was found that it is easier for males to travel alone, before reaching the age of sexual maturity, males leave their natal group and go through a “bachelor stage” that can last several years either in solitary or in a nonbreeding group. However, while both sexes leave their group, females are never found alone, they just travel from breeding group to breeding group. It was also found that males like to settle with other members of their family

12.
Congo Pygmies
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Most Pygmy communities are partially hunter-gatherers, living partially but not exclusively on the wild products of their environment. They trade with neighbouring farmers to acquire cultivated foods and other material items and it is estimated that there are between 250,000 and 600,000 Pygmies living in the Congo rainforest. However, although Pygmies are thought of as forest people, the groups called Twa may live in swamp or desert. In Greek mythology the word describes a tribe of dwarfs, first described by Homer, the term pygmy is sometimes considered pejorative. However, there is no term to replace it. Many so-called pygmies prefer instead to be referred to by the name of their various groups, or names for various interrelated groups such as the Aka, Baka, Mbuti. The term Bayaka, the form of the Aka/Yaka, is sometimes used in the Central African Republic to refer to all local Pygmies. Likewise, the Kongo word Bambenga is used in Congo, the Congo Pygmy groups were regarded as a sub-race of the Negroid race by European anthropologists in the late 19th through to the first half of the 20th century. The Congo Pygmy speak languages of the Niger–Congo and Central Sudanic language families, there has been significant intermixing between the Bantu and Pygmies. The current racial or ethnic designation was conceived by European anthropologists to describe the various small-framed groups of the Congo rain forests that appeared to be related and this view has no archaeological support, and ambiguous support from genetics and linguistics. Some 30% of the Aka language is not Bantu, and a percentage of the Baka language is not Ubangian. Much of this vocabulary is botanical, deals with honey collecting and it has been proposed that this is the remnant of an independent western Pygmy language. However, this type of vocabulary is subject to widespread borrowing among the Pygmies and neighboring peoples, genetically, the pygmies are extremely divergent from all other human populations, suggesting they have an ancient indigenous lineage. Their uniparental markers represent the most ancient divergent ones right after those found in Khoisan peoples. African pygmy populations possess high levels of diversity, recent advances in genetics shed some light on the origins of the various pygmy groups. Various theories have proposed to explain the short stature of pygmies. Evidence of heritability has been established which may have evolved as an adaptation to low light levels in rainforests. Music permeates daily life and there are songs for entertainment as well as specific events, polyphonic music is found among the Aka–Baka and the Mbuti, but not among the Gyele or the various groups of Twa

13.
Bantu peoples
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Bantu peoples is used as a general label for the 300–600 ethnic groups in Africa who speak Bantu languages. They inhabit an area stretching east and southward from Central Africa across the African Great Lakes region down to Southern Africa. Bantu is a branch of the Niger-Congo language family spoken by most populations in Africa. There are about 650 Bantu languages by the criterion of mutual intelligibility and this Bantu expansion first introduced Bantu peoples to central, southern, and southeastern Africa, regions they had previously been absent from. They also encountered some Afro-Asiatic outlier groups in the southeast, who had there for centuries migrating from Northeast Africa. Individual Bantu groups today often include millions of people, among these are the Shona of Zimbabwe with 14.2 million people, the Luba of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with over 13. Swahili also serves as one of the languages of the African Union. The word Bantu, and its variations, means people or humans, the root in Proto-Bantu is reconstructed as *-ntu. This view represents a resolution of debates in the 1960s over competing theories advanced by Joseph Greenberg and Malcolm Guthrie and he proposed that Bantu languages had spread east and south from there, to secondary centers of further dispersion, over hundreds of years. Subsequent research on loanwords for adaptations in agriculture and animal husbandry and it is unclear exactly when the spread of Bantu-speakers began from their core area as hypothesized c.5,000 years ago. Another stream of migration, moving east, by 3,000 years ago was creating a new population center near the Great Lakes of East Africa. Pioneering groups had reached modern KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa by A. D.300 along the coast, before the expansion of farming and herding peoples, including those speaking Bantu languages, Africa south of the equator was populated by neolithic hunting and foraging peoples. Some of them were ancestral to proto-Khoisan-speaking peoples, whose modern hunter-forager and linguistic descendants, the Hadza and Sandawe populations in Tanzania comprise the other modern hunter-forager remnant in Africa of these proto-Khoisan-speaking peoples. After their movements from their homeland in West Africa, Bantus also encountered in East Africa peoples of Afro-Asiatic. As cattle terminology in use amongst the few modern Bantu pastoralist groups suggests, linguistic evidence also indicates that Bantus likely borrowed the custom of milking cattle directly from Cushitic peoples in the area. On the coastal section of East Africa, another mixed Bantu community developed through contact with Muslim Arab, the Swahili culture that emerged from these exchanges evinces many Arab and Islamic influences not seen in traditional Bantu culture, as do the many Afro-Arab members of the Bantu Swahili people. Between the 14th and 15th centuries, Bantu-speaking states began to emerge in the Great Lakes region in the south of the Central African rain forest. On the Zambezi river, the Monomatapa kings built the famous Great Zimbabwe complex, from the 16th century onward, the processes of state formation amongst Bantu peoples increased in frequency

14.
Bantu expansion
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The Bantu expansion is the name for a postulated millennia-long series of migrations of speakers of the original proto-Bantu language group. The primary evidence for this expansion has been linguistic, namely that the languages spoken in Sub-Equatorial Africa are remarkably similar to each other, the Bantu traveled in two waves, the first across the Congo forest region. The linguistic core of the Bantu family of languages, a branch of the Niger–Congo language family, was located in the region of Cameroon. The expansion eventually reached South Africa, probably as early as AD300 and they believed that the expansion was caused by the development of agriculture, the making of ceramics, and the use of iron, which permitted new ecological zones to be exploited. In 1966 Roland Oliver published an article presenting these correlations as a reasonable hypothesis, the hypothesized Bantu expansion pushed out or assimilated the hunter-forager proto-Khoisan, who formerly inhabited Southern Africa. In Eastern and Southern Africa, Bantu speakers may have adopted livestock husbandry from other unrelated Cushitic-, herding practices reached the far south several centuries before Bantu-speaking migrants did. Archaeological, linguistic, genetic, and environmental evidence all support the conclusion that the Bantu expansion was a significant human migration, the Niger–Congo family comprises a huge group of languages spread throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. The Benue–Congo branch includes the Bantu languages, which are found throughout Central, Southern, a characteristic feature of most Niger–Congo languages, including the Bantu languages, is their use of tone. They generally lack case inflection, but grammatical gender is characteristic, the root of the verb tends to remain unchanged, with either particles or auxiliary verbs expressing tenses and moods. For example, in a number of languages the infinitival is the auxiliary designating the future, a typical trait in the Niger-Kordofanian family as a group is the division of nouns. This has been juxtaposed with the system of the Indo-European languages. Before the expansion of farming and pastoralist African peoples, Southern Africa was populated by hunter-gatherers and it is thought that Central African Pygmies and Bantus branched out from a common ancestral population c.70,000 years ago. Many Batwa groups speak Bantu languages, however, a portion of their vocabulary is not Bantu in origin. Much of this vocabulary is botanical, deals with honey collecting and it has been proposed that this is the remnant of an independent western Batwa language. The Hadza and Sandawe-speaking populations in Tanzania comprise the other modern hunter-forager remnant in Africa, parts of what now is present-day Kenya and Tanzania were also primarily inhabited by agropastoralist Afro-Asiatic speakers from the Horn of Africa followed by a later wave of Nilo-Saharan herders. It seems likely that the expansion of the Bantu-speaking people from their region in West Africa began around 1000 BCE. Although early models posited that the speakers were both iron-using and agricultural, archaeology has shown that they did not use iron until as late as 400 BCE. It is clear there were human populations in the region at the time of the expansion

15.
Kingdom of Kongo
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At its greatest extent, it reached from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Kwango River in the east, and from the Congo River in the north to the Kwanza River in the south. From c.1390 to 1891 it was mostly an independent state, from 1891 to 1914 it was a vassal state of the Kingdom of Portugal. In 1914, the monarchy was forcibly abolished, following Portuguese victory against a Kongo revolt. The remaining territories of the kingdom were assimilated into the colony of Angola, the modern-day Bundu dia Kongo sect favors reviving the kingdom through secession from Angola, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Gabon. According to Kongo tradition, the origin lies in the very large. A dynasty of rulers from this small polity built up its rule along the Kwilu valley, traditions from the 17th century allude to this sacred burial ground. According to the missionary Girolamo da Montesarchio, an Italian Capuchin who visited the area from 1650 to 1652, seventeenth century subjects of Mpemba Kasi called their country Mother of the King of Kongo in respect of the territorys antiquity. At some point around 1375, Nimi a Nzima, ruler of Mpemba Kasi, made an alliance with Nsaku Lau and this alliance guaranteed that each of the two allies would help ensure the succession of their allys lineage in the others territory. The first king of the Kingdom of Kongo Dya Ntotila was Lukeni lua Nimi. The name Nimi a Lukeni appeared in later oral traditions and some historians, notably Jean Cuvelier. Lukeni lua Nimi or Nimi a Lukeni, became the founder of Kongo when he conquered the kingdom of the Mwene Kabunga and he transferred his rule to this mountain, the Mongo dia Kongo or mountain of Kongo, and made Mbanza Kongo, the town there, his capital. Two centuries later the Mwene Kabungas descendants still symbolically challenged the conquest in an annual celebration, the rulers that followed Lukeni all claimed some form of relation to his kanda, or lineage and were known as the Kilukeni. The Kilukeni kanda or house as it was recorded in Portuguese documents, after the death of Nimi a Lukeni, his brother, Mbokani Mavinga, took over the throne and ruled until approximately 1467. He had two wives and nine children and his rule saw an expansion of the Kingdom of Kongo to include the neighbouring state of Loango and other areas now encompassed by the current Republic of Congo. The Mwene Kongos often gave the governorships to members of their family or its clients, the high concentration of population around Mbanza Kongo and its outskirts played a critical role in the centralization of Kongo. The capital was a settled area in an otherwise sparsely populated region where rural population densities probably did not exceed 5 persons per square kilometer. Early Portuguese travelers described Mbanza Kongo as a city, the size of the Portuguese town of Évora as it was in 1491. By the end of the century, Kongos population was probably close to half a million people in a core region of some 130,000 square kilometers. By the early seventeenth century the city and its hinterland had a population of around 100,000 and this concentration allowed resources, soldiers and surplus foodstuffs to be readily available at the request of the king

16.
Belgian colonial empire
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The Belgian colonial empire comprised three colonies controlled by Belgium between 1885 and 1962, Belgian Congo, Ruanda-Urundi and a concession in China. Belgians tended to refer to their overseas possessions as the rather than the empire. Unlike other European empires of the period, such as the British or German Empires, Belgium received its independence in 1830 after a revolution against the Dutch government of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. By the time Belgian independence was recognized in 1839, most European powers already possessed colonies and protectorates outside Europe and had begun to form spheres of influence. During the 1840s and 50s, King Leopold I tentatively supported several proposals to acquire territories overseas, in 1843, he signed a contract with Ladd & Co. to colonize the Kingdom of Hawaii, but the deal fell apart when Ladd & Co. ran into financial difficulties. Belgian traders also extended their influence in unoccupied West Africa but this too fell apart following the Rio Nuñez Incident of 1849, by the time Belgiums second king, Leopold II, was crowned, enthusiasm for colonialism in Belgium had abated. Successive governments viewed colonial expansion as economically and politically risky and fundamentally unrewarding and they believed that informal empire, continuing Belgiums booming industrial trade in South America and Russia, was much more promising. As a result, Leopold was initially forced to pursue his colonial ambitions without the support of the Belgian government, colonial rule in the Congo began in the late 19th century. Their ambivalence resulted in Leopolds creating a colony on his own account, the Free State government exploited the Congo for its natural resources, first ivory and later rubber which was becoming a valuable commodity. With the support of the military, the Force Publique. The Anglo-Belgian India Rubber Company, among others, used force, the regime in the Congo was responsible for using forced labour, murder and mutilation to force indigenous Congolese who did not fulfill quotas for rubber collections. It is estimated that millions of Congolese died during this time, a sharp reduction of the population of the Congo through excess deaths is widely considered to have occurred during the Free State period but estimates of the deaths toll vary considerably. Although figures are estimates, it is believed that as many as ten million Congolese died during the period, although the Congo Free State was not officially a Belgian colony, Belgium was its chief beneficiary in terms of its trade and the employment of its citizens. Leopold II personally accumulated considerable wealth from the rubber and ivory exports of the colony acquired at gunpoint, much of this was spent in numerous programmes of public building in Brussels, Ostend and Antwerp. Leopold achieved international recognition for a colony, the Congo Free State. Belgian rule in the Congo was based on the trinity of state, missionary. The privileging of Belgian commercial interests meant that large amounts of capital flowed into the Congo, the country was split into nesting, hierarchically organised administrative subdivisions, and run uniformly according to a set native policy. This was in contrast to the British and the French, who favoured the system of indirect rule whereby traditional leaders were retained in positions of authority under colonial oversight

17.
French colonial empire
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The French colonial empire constituted the overseas colonies, protectorates and mandate territories that came under French rule from the 16th century onward. The second empire came to an end after the loss of bitter wars in Vietnam and Algeria, competing with Spain, Portugal, the United Provinces, and later Britain, France began to establish colonies in North America, the Caribbean, and India in the 17th century. A series of wars with Great Britain and other European major powers during the 18th century, France rebuilt a new empire mostly after 1850, concentrating chiefly in Africa, as well as Indochina and the South Pacific. Republicans, at first hostile to empire, only became supportive when Germany started to build her own colonial empire and it also provided manpower in the World Wars. It became a mission to lift the world up to French standards by bringing Christianity. In 1884 the leading proponent of colonialism, Jules Ferry declared, The higher races have a right over the lower races, full citizenship rights – assimilation – were offered, although in reality assimilation was always receding the colonial populations treated like subjects not citizens. At its apex, it was one of the largest empires in history, including metropolitan France, the total amount of land under French sovereignty reached 11,500,000 km2 in 1920, with a population of 110 million people in 1939. In World War II, Charles de Gaulle and the Free French used the colonies as bases from which they fought to liberate France. However, after 1945 anti-colonial movements began to challenge European authority, the French constitution of October 27,1946, established the French Union which endured until 1958. Newer remnants of the empire were integrated into France as overseas departments. These now total altogether 119,394 km², which amounts to only 1% of the pre-1939 French colonial empires area, by the 1970s, says Robert Aldrich, the last vestiges of empire held little interest for the French. He argues, Except for the decolonization of Algeria, however. During the 16th century, the French colonization of the Americas began, the story of Frances colonial empire truly began on 27 July 1605, with the foundation of Port Royal in the colony of Acadia in North America, in what is now Nova Scotia, Canada. A few years later, in 1608, Samuel De Champlain founded Quebec, which was to become the capital of the enormous, New France had a rather small population, which resulted from more emphasis being placed on the fur trade rather than agricultural settlements. Due to this emphasis, the French relied heavily on creating friendly contacts with the local First Nations community and these became the most enduring alliances between the French and the First Nation community. The French were, however, under pressure from religious orders to them to Catholicism. Through alliances with various Native American tribes, the French were able to exert a loose control over much of the North American continent, areas of French settlement were generally limited to the St. Lawrence River Valley. Prior to the establishment of the 1663 Sovereign Council, the territories of New France were developed as mercantile colonies

18.
Portuguese Empire
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The Portuguese Empire, also known as the Portuguese Overseas, was one of the largest and longest-lived empires in world history and the first colonial empire. It existed for almost six centuries from the capture of Ceuta in 1415 to the grant of sovereignty to East Timor in 2002, the first era of the Portuguese empire originated at the beginning of the Age of Discovery. Initiated by the Kingdom of Portugal, it would eventually expand across the globe, in 1488, Bartolomeu Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and in 1498, Vasco da Gama reached India. In 1500, either by an accidental landfall or by the secret design. Over the following decades, Portuguese sailors continued to explore the coasts and islands of East Asia, establishing forts, by 1571, a string of naval outposts connected Lisbon to Nagasaki along the coasts of Africa, the Middle East, India and South Asia. This commercial network and the trade had a substantial positive impact on Portuguese economic growth. Though the realms continued to be administered separately, the Council of Portugal ruled the country and its empire from Madrid. As the King of Spain was also King of Portugal, Portuguese colonies became the subject of attacks by three rival European powers hostile to Spain, the Dutch Republic, England, and France. With its smaller population, Portugal was unable to defend its overstretched network of trading posts. Eventually, Brazil became the most valuable colony of the era until, as part of the wave of independence movements that swept the Americas during the early 19th century. The third era represents the stage of Portuguese colonialism after the decolonization of the Americas of the 1820s. The colonial possessions had been reduced to the African coastline, Portuguese Timor, the disastrous 1890 British Ultimatum led to the contraction of Portuguese ambitions in Africa. Macau was returned to China in 1999, the origin of the Kingdom of Portugal lay in the reconquista, the gradual reconquest of the Iberian peninsula from the Moors. There were several motives for their first attack, on the Marinid Sultanate. In 1415 an attack was made on Ceuta, a strategically located North African Muslim enclave along the Mediterranean Sea, although Ceuta proved to be a disappointment for the Portuguese, the decision was taken to hold it while exploring along the Atlantic African coast. At the time, Europeans did not know what lay beyond Cape Bojador on the African coast, under his sponsorship, soon the Atlantic islands of Madeira and Azores were reached and started to be settled producing wheat to export to Portugal. Fears of what lay beyond Cape Bojador, and whether it was possible to return once it was passed, were assuaged in 1434 when it was rounded by one of Infante Henrys captains, Gil Eanes. Once this psychological barrier had been crossed, it became easier to further along the coast

19.
Colonialism in Africa
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The history of external colonization of Africa can be divided into two stages, Classical antiquity and European colonialism. In popular parlance, discussions of colonialism in Africa usually focus on the European conquests that resulted in the scramble for Africa after the Berlin Conference in the 19th century. In nearly all African countries today, the used in government. The existence of a vast African diaspora is largely the legacy of the practice of transporting millions of African slaves out of the continent by these external colonisers, some modern scholars also blame the current under-development of Africa on the colonial era. In Ancient times, people from Southern Europe and Western Asia colonized North Africa, in the Middle Ages, North and East Africa was further colonized by people from Western Asia. In the Modern Era, Western Europeans colonized all parts of the continent, a wave of decolonization followed after World War II. The main instance of internal colonization within the African continent was the Bantu migration, North Africa experienced colonization from Europe and Western Asia in the early historical period, particularly Greeks and Phoenicians. Under Egypts Pharaoh Amasis a Greek mercantile colony was established at Naucratis, Greeks also colonized Cyrenaica around the same time. There was also an attempt in 513 BC to establish a Greek colony between Cyrene and Carthage, which resulted in the local and Carthaginian expulsion two years later of the Greek colonists. Alexander the Great founded Alexandria during his conquest of Egypt and this became one of the major cities of Hellenistic and Roman times, a trading and cultural centre as well as a military headquarters and communications hub. Phoenicians established a number of colonies along the coast of North Africa, some of these were founded relatively early. Utica, for example, was founded c.1100 BC, Carthage, which means New City, has a traditional foundation date of 814 BC. It was established in what is now Tunisia and became a power in the Mediterranean by the 4th century BC. The Carthaginians themselves sent out expeditions to explore and establish colonies along Africas Atlantic coast, a surviving account of such is that of Hanno, which Harden who quotes it places at c.425 BC. Carthage encountered and struggled with the Romans, after the third and final war between them, the Third Punic War, Rome completely destroyed Carthage. Scullard mentions plans by such as Gaius Gracchus in the late 2nd century BC, Julius Caesar and Augustus in the mid- and this was established and under Augustus served as the capital city of the Roman province of Africa. Gothic Vandals briefly established a kingdom there in the 5th century, which shortly thereafter fell to the Romans again, the whole of Roman/Byzantine North Africa eventually fell to the Arabs in the 7th century. Arabs introduced the Arabic language and Islam in the early Medieval period, vincent Khapoya mentions Ali Mazruis three interrelated broad reasons for European exploration of Africa, to increase knowledge, to spread Christianity and to increase national esteem

20.
General Act of the Berlin Conference
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The conference ushered in a period of heightened colonial activity by European powers, which eliminated or overrode most existing forms of African autonomy and self-governance. Before the conference, European diplomacy treated African indigenous people in the manner as the New World natives. By the mid-19th century, Europeans considered Africa to be disputed territory ripe for exploration, trade, with the exception of trading posts along the coasts, the continent was essentially ignored. In 1876, King Leopold II of Belgium, who had founded the International African Society in 1876. In 1878, the International Congo Society was also formed, with more economic goals, Léopold secretly bought off the foreign investors in the Congo Society, which was turned to imperialistic goals, with the African Society serving primarily as a philanthropic front. From 1878 to 1885, Stanley returned to the Congo, not as a reporter, French intelligence had discovered Leopolds plans, and France quickly engaged in its own colonial exploration. Finally, Portugal, which already had a long, but essentially abandoned colonial Empire in the area through the mostly defunct proxy state Kongo Empire and its claims were based on old treaties with Spain and the Roman Catholic Church. It quickly made a treaty on 26 February 1884 with its former ally, stanleys charting of the Congo River Basin removed the last terra incognita from European maps of the continent, and delineating the areas of British, Portuguese, French, and Belgian control. The powers raced to push these rough boundaries to their furthest limits, France moved to take over Tunisia, one of the last of the Barbary Pirate states, under the pretext of another piracy incident. French claims by Pierre de Brazza were quickly solidified with French taking control of todays Republic of the Congo in 1881, Italy became part of the Triple Alliance, upsetting Bismarcks carefully laid plans with the state and forcing Germany to become involved in Africa. Through it, the UK also ruled over the Sudan and what would later become British Somaliland, owing to the European race for colonies, Germany started launching expeditions of its own, which frightened both British and French statesmen. Hoping to quickly soothe this brewing conflict, King Leopold II convinced France, the conference was convened on Saturday, November 15,1884 at Bismarcks official residence on Wilhelmstrasse. The British representative was Sir Edward Malet, Henry Morton Stanley attended as a U. S. delegate. The General Act fixed the following points, To gain public acceptance, thus, an international prohibition of the slave trade throughout their respected spheres was signed by the European members. Because of this point the writer Joseph Conrad sarcastically referred to the conference as the International Society for the Suppression of Savage Customs in his novella Heart of Darkness. The Congo Free State was confirmed as the property of the Congo Society. The territory of todays Democratic Republic of the Congo, some two square kilometers, was confirmed by the European powers as essentially the property of Léopold II. The 14 signatory powers would have free trade throughout the Congo Basin as well as Lake Malawi, the Niger and Congo rivers were made free for ship traffic

21.
First World War
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany

22.
African Great Lakes
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The African Great Lakes are a series of lakes constituting the part of the Rift Valley lakes in and around the East African Rift. They include Lake Victoria, the second-largest fresh water lake in the world by area, and Lake Tanganyika, collectively, they contain 31,000 km3 of water, which is more than either Lake Baikal or the North American Great Lakes. This total constitutes about 25% of the planets unfrozen surface fresh water, the large rift lakes of Africa are the ancient home of great biodiversity, 10% of the worlds fish species live there. Countries in the African Great Lakes region include Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, a conference will be held on the lakes region in 2017 in Uganda. The African Great Lakes are divided among three different drainage/catchments river basins, another number also have Endorheic basin systems, such as Lake Turkana. Lake Kyoga is part of the Great Lakes system, however, it is not itself considered a Great Lake, based on size alone. Lake Tanganyika and Lake Kivu both empty into the Congo River system, while Lake Malawi is drained by the Shire River into the Zambezi, the African Great Lake region consists of countries that surround the African Great Lakes. It comprises Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, the Bantu Swahili language is the most commonly spoken language in the African Great Lakes region. It also serves as a national or official language of four nations in the region, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Due to the population density of an estimated 107 million people, and the agricultural surplus in the region. The most powerful of these monarchies were Buganda, Bunyoro, Rwanda, unusual for sub-Saharan Africa, the traditional borders were largely maintained by the colonial powers. Being the long sought source of the Nile, the region had long been of interest to Europeans. The first Europeans to arrive in the region in any numbers were missionaries who had limited success in converting the locals, the increased contact with the rest of the world led to a series of devastating epidemics affecting both humans and livestock. While seen as a region with great potential after independence, the region has in recent decades been marred by war and conflict. According to the UNHCR, Tanzania hosted the most Congolese refugees of the region, the worst affected areas have been left in great poverty. The highlands are relatively cool, with temperatures of 17–19˚C. Major drainage basins include those of the Congo-Zaire, Nile, and Zambezi rivers, which drain into the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, forests are dominant in the lowlands of the Congo-Zaire Basin, while grasslands and savannas are most common in the southern and eastern highlands. Temperatures in the average about 95 °F

23.
Angola
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Angola /æŋˈɡoʊlə/, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country in Southern Africa. It is the seventh-largest country in Africa and is bordered by Namibia to the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Zambia to the east, and the Atlantic Ocean to west. The exclave province of Cabinda has borders with the Republic of the Congo, the capital and largest city of Angola is Luanda. In the 19th century, European settlers slowly and hesitantly began to themselves in the interior. As a Portuguese colony, Angola did not encompass its present borders until the early 20th century, following resistance by groups such as the Cuamato, the Kwanyama and the Mbunda. Independence was achieved in 1975 under a communist one-party state backed by the Soviet Union, however, the country soon descended into an even lengthier civil war that lasted until 2002. It has since become a relatively stable presidential republic. Angola has vast mineral and petroleum reserves, and its economy is among the fastest growing in the world, Angolas economic growth is highly uneven, with the majority of the nations wealth concentrated in a disproportionately small sector of the population. Angola is a state of the United Nations, OPEC, African Union, the Community of Portuguese Language Countries, the Latin Union. A highly multiethnic country, Angolas 25.8 million people span various tribal groups, customs, Angolan culture reflects centuries of Portuguese rule, namely in the predominance of the Portuguese language and the Catholic Church, combined with diverse indigenous influences. The name Angola comes from the Portuguese colonial name Reino de Angola, the toponym was derived by the Portuguese from the title ngola held by the kings of Ndongo. Ndongo was a kingdom in the highlands, between the Kwanza and Lukala Rivers, nominally tributary to the king of Kongo but which was seeking greater independence during the 16th century, modern Angola was populated predominantly by nomadic Khoi and San prior to the first Bantu migrations. The Khoi and San peoples were neither pastoralists nor cultivators, following a hunter-gatherer lifestyle and they were displaced by Bantu peoples arriving from the north, some of whom likely originated in northwestern Nigeria. Bantu speakers introduced the cultivation of bananas and taro, as well as large herds, to Angolas central highlands. During this time, the Bantu established a number of entities in most of what today comprises Angola. To its south lay the Kingdom of Ndongo, from which the area of the later Portuguese colony was known as Dongo. The region now known as Angola was reached by the Portuguese explorer Diogo Cão in 1484, the year before, the Portuguese had established relations with the Kongo, which stretched at the time from modern Gabon in the north to the Kwanza River in the south. The Portuguese established their primary trading post at Soyo, which is now the northernmost city in Angola apart from the Cabinda exclave

24.
Burundi
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It is also considered part of Central Africa. The southwestern border is adjacent to Lake Tanganyika, the Twa, Hutu and Tutsi peoples have lived in Burundi for at least 500 years. For more than 200 of those years, Burundi was an independent kingdom, until the beginning of the twentieth century, after the First World War and Germanys defeat, it ceded the territory to Belgium. Both Germans and Belgians ruled Burundi and Rwanda as a European colony known as Ruanda-Urundi, despite common misconceptions, Burundi and Rwanda had never been under common rule until the time of European colonisation. The European intervention exacerbated social differences between the Tutsi and Hutu, and contributed to political unrest in the region. Bouts of ethnic cleansing and ultimately two civil wars and genocides during the 1970s and again in the 1990s left the country undeveloped, Burundis political system is that of a presidential representative democratic republic based upon a multi-party state. The President of Burundi is the head of state and head of government, there are currently 21 registered parties in Burundi. On 13 March 1992, Tutsi coup leader Pierre Buyoya established a constitution, six years later, on 6 June 1998, the constitution was changed, broadening National Assemblys seats and making provisions for two vice-presidents. Because of the Arusha Accord, Burundi enacted a government in 2000. In October 2016, Burundi informed the UN of its intention to withdraw from the International Criminal Court, Burundi remains an overwhelmingly rural society, with just 13% of the population living in urban areas in 2013. The population density of around 315 people per kilometre is the second highest in Sub-Saharan Africa. Roughly 85% of the population are of Hutu ethnic origin, 15% are Tutsi, the official languages of Burundi are French and Kirundi, although Swahili can be found spoken along the Tanzanian border. One of the smallest countries in Africa, Burundi has an equatorial climate, Burundi is a part of the Albertine Rift, the western extension of the East African Rift. The country lies on a plateau in the centre of Africa. The highest peak, Mount Heha at 2,685 m, lies to the southeast of the capital, there are two national parks, Kibira National Park to the northwest, Ruvubu National Park to the northeast. Both were established in 1982 to conserve wildlife populations, Burundis lands are mostly agricultural or pasture. Settlement by rural populations has led to deforestation, soil erosion, deforestation of the entire country is almost completely due to overpopulation, with a mere 600 km2 remaining and an ongoing loss of about 9% per annum. In addition to poverty, Burundians often have to deal with corruption, weak infrastructure, poor access to health and education services, Burundi is densely populated and has had substantial emigration as young people seek opportunities elsewhere

25.
Cameroon
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Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Cameroons coastline lies on the Bight of Biafra, part of the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean. French and English are the languages of Cameroon. The country is referred to as Africa in miniature for its geological and cultural diversity. Natural features include beaches, deserts, mountains, rainforests, the country is well known for its native styles of music, particularly makossa and bikutsi, and for its successful national football team. Early inhabitants of the territory included the Sao civilisation around Lake Chad, portuguese explorers reached the coast in the 15th century and named the area Rio dos Camarões, which became Cameroon in English. Fulani soldiers founded the Adamawa Emirate in the north in the 19th century, Cameroon became a German colony in 1884 known as Kamerun. After World War I, the territory was divided between France and the United Kingdom as League of Nations mandates, the Union des Populations du Cameroun political party advocated independence, but was outlawed by France in the 1950s, leading to the Cameroonian Independence War. It waged war on French and UPC militant forces until 1971, in 1960, the French-administered part of Cameroon became independent as the Republic of Cameroun under President Ahmadou Ahidjo. The southern part of British Cameroons federated with it in 1961 to form the Federal Republic of Cameroon, the federation was abandoned in 1972. The country was renamed the United Republic of Cameroon in 1972, Cameroon enjoys relatively high political and social stability. This has permitted the development of agriculture, roads, railways, nevertheless, large numbers of Cameroonians live in poverty as subsistence farmers. Power lies firmly in the hands of the president since 1982, Paul Biya. The English-speaking territories of Cameroon have grown increasingly alienated from the government, politicians and civil society in English-speaking regions have called for greater decentralization and even complete separation or independence from the former French-governed territories. The territory of present-day Cameroon was first settled during the Neolithic Era, the longest continuous inhabitants are groups such as the Baka. From here, Bantu migrations into eastern, southern, and central Africa are believed to have originated about 2,000 years ago, the Sao culture arose around Lake Chad c. AD500 and gave way to the Kanem and its successor state, kingdoms, fondoms, and chiefdoms arose in the west. Portuguese sailors reached the coast in 1472 and they noted an abundance of the ghost shrimp Lepidophthalmus turneranus in the Wouri River and named it Rio dos Camarões, which became Cameroon in English

26.
Central African Republic
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The Central African Republic is a landlocked country in Central Africa. The CAR covers a area of about 620,000 square kilometres and had an estimated population of around 4.7 million as of 2014. Most of the CAR consists of Sudano-Guinean savannas, but the country includes a Sahelo-Sudanian zone in the north. Two thirds of the country is within the Ubangi River basin, while the third lies in the basin of the Chari. Ange-Félix Patassé became president, but was removed by General François Bozizé in the 2003 coup. As of 2015, according to the Human Development Index, the country had the lowest level of human development and this Agricultural Revolution, combined with a Fish-stew Revolution, in which fishing began to take place, and the use of boats, allowed for the transportation of goods. Products were often moved in ceramic pots, which are the first known examples of artistic expression from the regions inhabitants, the Bouar Megaliths in the western region of the country indicate an advanced level of habitation dating back to the very late Neolithic Era. Ironworking arrived in the region around 1000 BC from both Bantu cultures in what is today Nigeria and from the Nile city of Meroë, the capital of the Kingdom of Kush. Bananas arrived in the region and added an important source of carbohydrates to the diet, production of copper, salt, dried fish, and textiles dominated the economic trade in the Central African region. During the 16th and 17th centuries slave traders began to raid the region as part of the expansion of the Saharan, in the mid 19th century, the Bobangi people became major slave traders and sold their captives to the Americas using the Ubangi river to reach the coast. During the 18th century Bandia-Nzakara peoples established the Bangassou Kingdom along the Ubangi River, in 1875 the Sudanese sultan Rabih az-Zubayr governed Upper-Oubangui, which included present-day CAR. The European penetration of Central African territory began in the late 19th century during the Scramble for Africa, Europeans, primarily the French, Germans, and Belgians, arrived in the area in 1885. France created Ubangi-Shari territory in 1894, in 1911 at the Treaty of Fez, France ceded a nearly 300,000 km² portion of the Sangha and Lobaye basins to the German Empire which ceded a smaller area to France. After World War I France again annexed the territory, in 1920 French Equatorial Africa was established and Ubangi-Shari was administered from Brazzaville. The concessionary companies forced local people to harvest rubber, coffee, between 1890, a year after the French first arrived, and 1940, about half of the population died as a result. New forms of forced labor were also introduced and a number of Ubangians were sent to work on the Congo-Ocean Railway. Many of these laborers died of exhaustion, illness, or the poor conditions which claimed between 20% and 25% of the 127,000 workers. In 1928, an insurrection, the Kongo-Wara rebellion or war of the hoe handle, broke out in Western Ubangi-Shari

27.
Democratic Republic of the Congo
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The Democratic Republic of the Congo, also known as DR Congo, DRC, DROC, East Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo is a country located in Central Africa. From 1971 to 1997 it was named, and is still called, Zaire. It is the second-largest country in Africa by area and eleventh largest in the world, the Congolese Civil Wars, which began in 1996, brought about the end of Mobutu Sese Sekos 32-year reign and devastated the country. These wars ultimately involved nine African nations, multiple groups of UN peacekeepers and twenty armed groups, besides the capital, Kinshasa, the other major cities, Lubumbashi and Mbuji-Mayi, are both mining communities. DR Congos largest export is raw minerals, with China accepting over 50% of DRCs exports in 2012, as of 2015, according to the Human Development Index, DR Congo has a low level of human development, ranking 176 out of 187 countries. The country was known officially as the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1965 to 27 October 1971, in 1992, the Sovereign National Conference voted to change the name of the country to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but the change was not put into practice. The countrys name was restored by former president Laurent-Désiré Kabila following the fall of longtime dictator Mobutu Sese Seko in 1997, some historians think that Bantu peoples began settling in the extreme northwest of Central Africa at the beginning of the 5th century and then gradually started to expand southward. Their propagation was accelerated by the transition from Stone Age to Iron Age techniques, the people living in the south and southwest were mostly San Bushmen and hunter-gatherer groups, whose technology involved only minimal use of metal technologies. The development of tools during this time period revolutionized agriculture. This led to the displacement of the groups in the east and southeast. The 10th century marked the expansion of the Bantu in West-Central Africa. Rising populations soon made intricate local, regional and foreign commercial networks that traded mostly in salt, iron. Belgian exploration and administration took place from the 1870s until the 1920s and it was first led by Sir Henry Morton Stanley, who undertook his explorations under the sponsorship of King Leopold II of Belgium. The eastern regions of the precolonial Congo were heavily disrupted by constant slave raiding, mainly from Arab–Swahili slave traders such as the infamous Tippu Tip, Leopold had designs on what was to become the Congo as a colony. Leopold formally acquired rights to the Congo territory at the Conference of Berlin in 1885 and he named it the Congo Free State. Leopolds rėgime began various infrastructure projects, such as construction of the railway ran from the coast to the capital of Leopoldville. Nearly all such projects were aimed at making it easier to increase the assets which Leopold. In the Free State, colonists brutalized the local population into producing rubber, for which the spread of automobiles, rubber sales made a fortune for Leopold, who built several buildings in Brussels and Ostend to honor himself and his country

28.
Republic of the Congo
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The Republic of the Congo, also known as the Congo Republic, West Congo, Congo-Brazzaville or simply Congo, is a country located in Central Africa. The region was dominated by Bantu-speaking tribes, who built trade links leading into the Congo River basin, Congo-Brazzaville was formerly part of the French colony of Equatorial Africa. Upon independence in 1960, the colony of French Congo became the Republic of the Congo. The Peoples Republic of the Congo was a Marxist–Leninist one-party state from 1970 to 1991, Bantu-speaking peoples who founded tribes during the Bantu expansions largely displaced and absorbed the earliest inhabitants of the region, the Pygmy people, about 1500 BC. Several Bantu kingdoms—notably those of the Kongo, the Loango, the Portuguese explorer Diogo Cão reached the mouth of the Congo in 1484. Commercial relationships quickly grew between the inland Bantu kingdoms and European merchants who traded various commodities, manufactured goods, the area north of the Congo River came under French sovereignty in 1880 as a result of Pierre de Brazzas treaty with King Makoko of the Bateke. This Congo Colony became known first as French Congo, then as Middle Congo in 1903, in 1908, France organized French Equatorial Africa, comprising Middle Congo, Gabon, Chad, and Oubangui-Chari. The French designated Brazzaville as the federal capital, economic development during the first 50 years of colonial rule in Congo centered on natural-resource extraction. The methods were brutal, construction of the Congo–Ocean Railroad following World War I has been estimated to have cost at least 14,000 lives. During the Nazi occupation of France during World War II, Brazzaville functioned as the capital of Free France between 1940 and 1943. The Brazzaville Conference of 1944 heralded a period of reform in French colonial policy. Congo benefited from the expansion of colonial administrative and infrastructure spending as a result of its central geographic location within AEF. It also received a local legislature after the adoption of the 1946 constitution that established the Fourth Republic, during these reforms, Middle Congo became known as the Republic of the Congo in 1958 and published its first constitution in 1959. Antagonism between the pro-Opangault Mbochis and the pro-Youlou Balalis resulted in a series of riots in Brazzaville in February 1959, the Republic of the Congo received full independence from France on 15 August 1960. Fulbert Youlou ruled as the countrys first president until labour elements, the Congolese military took charge of the country briefly and installed a civilian provisional government headed by Alphonse Massamba-Débat. Resentment and bitterness between the Baali and the Mbochi peoples brought upheaval in Brazzaville, the French army arrived to quell the turmoil. New elections took place in April 1959, by the time the Congo became independent, Jacques Opangault, the former opponent of Youlou, agreed to serve under him. Youlou became the first President of the Republic of the Congo, since the political tension was so high in Pointe-Noire, Youlou moved the capital to Brazzaville

29.
Rwanda
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Rwanda, officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a sovereign state in central and east Africa and one of the smallest countries on the African mainland. Located a few south of the Equator, Rwanda is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi. Rwanda is in the African Great Lakes region and is elevated, its geography is dominated by mountains in the west and savanna to the east. The climate is temperate to subtropical, with two seasons and two dry seasons each year. The population is young and predominantly rural, with a density among the highest in Africa, Rwandans are drawn from just one cultural and linguistic group, the Banyarwanda, although within this group there are three subgroups, the Hutu, Tutsi and Twa. The Twa are a pygmy people descended from Rwandas earliest inhabitants. Christianity is the largest religion in the country, the language is Kinyarwanda, spoken by most Rwandans, with English. Rwanda has a system of government. The president is Paul Kagame of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, who took office in 2000, Rwanda today has low corruption compared with neighbouring countries, although human rights organisations report suppression of opposition groups, intimidation and restrictions on freedom of speech. The country has been governed by an administrative hierarchy since pre-colonial times. Rwanda is one of two countries with a female majority in the national parliament. Hunter gatherers settled the territory in the stone and iron ages, the population coalesced first into clans and then into kingdoms. The Kingdom of Rwanda dominated from the century, with the Tutsi kings conquering others militarily, centralising power. Germany colonised Rwanda in 1884 as part of German East Africa, followed by Belgium, both European nations ruled through the kings and perpetuated a pro-Tutsi policy. The Hutu population revolted in 1959 and they massacred numerous Tutsi and ultimately established an independent, Hutu-dominated state in 1962. The Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front launched a war in 1990. Social tensions erupted in the 1994 genocide, in which Hutu extremists killed an estimated 500,000 to 1.3 million Tutsi, the RPF ended the genocide with a military victory. Rwandas economy suffered heavily during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, but has since strengthened, the economy is based mostly on subsistence agriculture

30.
South Sudan
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South Sudan, officially the Republic of South Sudan, is a landlocked country in northeastern Africa that gained its independence from Sudan in 2011. Its current capital is Juba, which is also its largest city and it was planned that the capital city would be changed to the more centrally located Ramciel in the future before civil war broke out. It includes the vast swamp region of the Sudd, formed by the White Nile, following the First Sudanese Civil War, the Southern Sudan Autonomous Region was formed in 1972 and lasted until 1983. A second Sudanese civil war soon developed and ended with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005, later that year, southern autonomy was restored when an Autonomous Government of Southern Sudan was formed. South Sudan became an independent state on 9 July 2011, following a referendum passed with 98. 83% of the vote. It is a United Nations member state, a state of the African Union, of the East African Community. In July 2012, South Sudan signed the Geneva Conventions, South Sudan has suffered ethnic violence and has been in a civil war since 2013, as of 2016 it has the second highest score on the Fragile States Index. The Nilotic people of South Sudan—the Acholi, Anyuak, Bari, Dinka, Nuer, Shilluk, Kaligi, Zande, the Azande, Mundu, Avukaya and Baka, who entered South Sudan in the 16th century—established the regions largest state of Equatoria Region. The Dinka are the largest, Nuer the second largest and Azande are the third-largest ethnic group in South Sudan while the Bari are fourth-largest. They are found in the Maridi, Yambio, and Tombura districts in the tropical rainforest belt of Western Equatoria, in the 18th century, the Avungara sib rose to power over the rest of Azande society and this domination continued into the 20th century. The major reasons include the history of British policy preference toward developing the Arab north. After Sudans first independent elections in 1958, the ignoring of the south by Khartoum led to uprisings, revolt. As of 2012, peoples include Acholi, Anyuak, Azande, Baka, Balanda Bviri, Bari, Boya, Didinga, Dinka, Jiye, Kaligi, Kuku, Lotuka, Mundari, Murie, Nilotic, Nuer, Shilluk, Toposa and Zande. Slavery had been an institution of Sudanese life throughout history, the slave trade in the south intensified in the 19th century and continued after the British had suppressed slavery in much of sub-Saharan Africa. Annual Sudanese slave raids into non-Muslim territories resulted in the capture of thousands of southern Sudanese. In the 19th century, the Azande fought the French, the Belgians, Egypt, under the rule of Khedive Ismail Pasha, first attempted to control the region in the 1870s, establishing the province of Equatoria in the southern portion. Egypts first governor was Samuel Baker, commissioned in 1869, followed by Charles George Gordon in 1874, the Mahdist Revolt of the 1880s destabilized the nascent province, and Equatoria ceased to exist as an Egyptian outpost in 1889. Important settlements in Equatoria included Lado, Gondokoro, Dufile and Wadelai, european colonial maneuverings in the region came to a head in 1898, when the Fashoda Incident occurred at present-day Kodok, Britain and France almost went to war over the region

31.
Tanzania
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Tanzania /ˌtænzəˈniːə/, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in Eastern Africa within the African Great Lakes region. Parts of the country are in Southern Africa, Mount Kilimanjaro, Africas highest mountain, is in northeastern Tanzania. Tanzanias population of 51.82 million is diverse, composed of ethnic, linguistic. Dar es Salaam, the capital, retains most government offices and is the countrys largest city, principal port. Tanzania is a one party dominant state with the Chama Cha Mapinduzi party in power, from its formation until 1992, it was the only legally permitted party in the country. Elections for president and all National Assembly seats were last held in October 2015, the CCM holds approximately 75% of the seats in the assembly. Prehistoric population migrations include Southern Cushitic speakers, who are ancestral to the Iraqw, Gorowa, and Burunge and who moved south from Ethiopia into Tanzania. Based on linguistic evidence, there may also have two movements into Tanzania of Eastern Cushitic people at about 4,000 and 2,000 years ago. These movements took place at about the time as the settlement of the iron-making Mashariki Bantu from West Africa in the Lake Victoria. They brought with them the west African planting tradition and the staple of yams. They subsequently migrated out of these regions across the rest of Tanzania, European colonialism began in mainland Tanzania during the late 19th century when Germany formed German East Africa, which gave way to British rule following World War I. The mainland was governed as Tanganyika, with the Zanzibar Archipelago remaining a separate colonial jurisdiction, following their respective independence in 1961 and 1963, the two entities merged in April 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania. Tanzania is mountainous and densely forested in the northeast, where Mount Kilimanjaro is located, three of Africas Great Lakes are partly within Tanzania. To the north and west lie Lake Victoria, Africas largest lake, and Lake Tanganyika, the eastern shore is hot and humid, with the Zanzibar Archipelago just offshore. The Menai Bay Conservation Area is Zanzibars largest marine protected area, over 100 different languages are spoken in Tanzania, making it the most linguistically diverse country in East Africa. Among the languages spoken in Tanzania are all four of Africas language families, Bantu, Cushitic, Nilotic, Swahili and English are Tanzanias official languages. In connection with his Ujamaa social policies, President Nyerere encouraged the use of Swahili, approximately 10% of Tanzanians speak Swahili as a first language, and up to 90% speak it as a second language. Most Tanzanians thus speak both Swahili and a language, many educated Tanzanians are trilingual, also speaking English

32.
Zambia
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The capital city is Lusaka, in the south-central part of Zambia. The population is concentrated mainly around Lusaka in the south and the Copperbelt Province to the northwest, originally inhabited by Khoisan peoples, the region was affected by the Bantu expansion of the thirteenth century. After visits by European explorers in the century, Zambia became the British protectorate of Northern Rhodesia towards the end of the nineteenth century. For most of the period, Zambia was governed by an administration appointed from London with the advice of the British South Africa Company. On 24 October 1964, Zambia became independent of the United Kingdom, Kaundas socialist United National Independence Party maintained power from 1964 until 1991. Kaunda played a key role in diplomacy, cooperating closely with the United States in search of solutions to conflicts in Rhodesia, Angola. From 1972 to 1991 Zambia was a one-party state with the UNIP as the legal political party under the motto One Zambia. Kaunda was succeeded by Frederick Chiluba of the social-democratic Movement for Multi-Party Democracy in 1991, beginning a period of social-economic growth, after Mwanawasas death, Rupiah Banda presided as Acting President before being elected President in 2008. Holding office for three years, Banda stepped down after his defeat in the 2011 elections by Patriotic Front party leader Michael Sata. Sata died on 28 October 2014, the second Zambian president to die in office, Guy Scott served briefly as interim president until new elections were held on 20 January 2015, in which Edgar Lungu was elected as the sixth President. In 2010, the World Bank named Zambia one of the worlds fastest economically reformed countries, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa is headquartered in Lusaka. The territory of what is now Zambia was known as Northern Rhodesia from 1911 and it was renamed Zambia at independence in 1964. The new name of Zambia was derived from the Zambezi river, the area of modern Zambia is known to have been inhabited by the Khoisan until around AD300, when migrating Bantu began to settle around these areas. These early hunter-gatherer groups were either annihilated or absorbed by subsequent more organised Bantu groups. Archaeological excavation work on the Zambezi Valley and Kalambo Falls show a succession of human cultures, in particular, ancient camping site tools near the Kalambo Falls have been radiocarbon dated to more than 36,000 year ago. The fossil skull remains of Broken Hill Man, dated between 300,000 and 125,000 years BC, further shows that the area was inhabited by pre-historic man. The early history of tribes of modern-day Zambia can only be gleaned from knowledge passed down by successive generations through word of mouth, in the 12th century, major waves of Bantu-speaking immigrants arrived during the Bantu expansion. Among them, the Tonga people were the first to settle in Zambia and are believed to have come from the east near the big sea, by the late 12th century, more advanced kingdoms and empires had been established in most regions of modern-day Zambia

33.
Okapi
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The okapi is a giraffid artiodactyl mammal native to the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Central Africa. Although the okapi bears striped markings reminiscent of zebras, it is most closely related to the giraffe, the okapi and the giraffe are the only living members of the family Giraffidae. The okapi stands about 1.5 m tall at the shoulder and has a body length of about 2.5 m. Its weight ranges from 200 to 350 kg and it has a long neck, and large, flexible ears. Its coat is a chocolate to reddish brown, much in contrast with the horizontal stripes and rings on the legs. Male okapis have short, hair-covered horns called ossicones, less than 15 cm in length, females possess hair whorls, and ossicones are absent. Okapis are primarily diurnal but may be active for a few hours in darkness and they are essentially solitary, coming together only to breed. Okapis are herbivores, feeding on leaves and buds, grasses, ferns, fruits. Rut in males and estrus in females does not depend on the season, in captivity, estrous cycles recur every 15 days. The gestational period is around 440 to 450 days long, following which usually a single calf is born, the juveniles are kept in hiding, and nursing takes place infrequently. Juveniles start taking solid food from three months, and weaning takes place at six months, Okapis inhabit canopy forests at altitudes of 500–1,500 m. They are endemic to the forests of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources classifies the okapi as Endangered, Major threats include habitat loss due to logging and human settlement. Extensive hunting for bushmeat and skin and illegal mining have also led to a decline in populations, the Okapi Conservation Project was established in 1987 to protect okapi populations. The scientific name of the okapi is Okapia johnstoni and it was first described as Equus johnstoni by English zoologist Philip Lutley Sclater in 1901. The animal was brought to prominent European attention by speculation on its existence found in press reports covering Henry Morton Stanleys journeys in 1887, remains of a carcass were later sent to London by the English adventurer and colonial administrator Harry Johnston and became a media event in 1901. In 1901, zoologist Philip Sclater presented a painting of the okapi before the Zoological Society of London that depicted its physical features with some clarity, there was much confusion regarding the taxonomical status of this newly discovered animal. Sir Harry Johnston himself called it a Helladotherium, or a relative of other extinct giraffids, based on the description of the okapi by Pygmies, who referred to it as a horse, Sclater named the species Equus johnstoni

34.
Bonobo
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The bonobo is distinguished by relatively long legs, pink lips, dark face and tail-tuft through adulthood, and parted long hair on its head. The bonobo is found in a 500,000 km2 area of the Congo Basin in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the species is omnivorous and inhabits primary and secondary forests, including seasonally inundated swamp forests. Political instability in the region and the timidity of bonobos has meant there has been relatively little work done observing the species in its natural habitat. Along with the chimpanzee, the bonobo is the closest extant relative to humans. Because the two species are not proficient swimmers, the formation of the Congo River 1. 5–2 million years ago led to the speciation of the bonobo. Bonobos live south of the river, and thereby were separated from the ancestors of the common chimpanzee, there is no concrete data on population numbers, but the estimate is between 29,500 and 50,000 individuals. The species is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List and is threatened by destruction and human population growth and movement. They typically live 40 years in captivity, their lifespan in the wild is unknown. As of June 2016 a total of 119 live in zoos across Europe,65 distributed between six different German zoos, and a further 54 in zoos in Belgium, France, the Netherlands and England. Despite the alternative common name pygmy chimpanzee, the bonobo is not especially diminutive when compared to the common chimpanzee, Pygmy may instead refer to the pygmy peoples who live in the same area. The name bonobo first appeared in 1954, when Eduard Paul Tratz and Heinz Heck proposed it as a new and separate generic term for pygmy chimpanzees. The name is thought to be a misspelling on a crate from the town of Bolobo on the Congo River. The term has also reported as being a word for ancestor in an extinct Bantu language. Fossils of Pan species were not described until 2005, existing chimpanzee populations in West and Central Africa do not overlap with the major human fossil sites in East Africa. However, Pan fossils have now been reported from Kenya and this would indicate that both humans and members of the Pan clade were present in the East African Rift Valley during the Middle Pleistocene. According to A. Schwarz published his findings in 1929, in 1933, American anatomist Harold Coolidge offered a more detailed description of the bonobo, and elevated it to species status. The American psychologist and primatologist Robert Yerkes was also one of the first scientists to notice differences between bonobos and chimpanzees. These were first discussed in detail in a study by Eduard Paul Tratz, the first official publication of the sequencing and assembly of the bonobo genome became publicly available in June 2012. 4% divergent from the chimpanzee genome

35.
Congo peafowl
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The Congo peafowl, known as the mbulu by the Congolese, is a species of peafowl native to the Congo Basin. It is one of three extant species of peafowl, the two being the Indian peafowl and the green peafowl. Very little is known about this species and it was only recorded as a species in 1936 by Dr. James Chapin after his failed search for the elusive okapi. Dr. Chapin noticed that the native Congolese headdresses contained long reddish-brown feathers that he couldnt identify with any known species of bird. In 1955 Chapin managed to find seven specimens of the species, the Congo peacock has physical characteristics of both the peafowl and the guineafowl, which may indicate that the Congo peacock is a link between the two families. The male of species is a large bird of up to 64–70 cm in length. Though much less impressive than its Asiatic cousins, the feathers are nevertheless deep blue with a metallic green. It has bare red skin, grey feet, and a black tail with fourteen tail feathers. Its crown is adorned with vertical white elongated hair-like feathers, the female measures up to 60–63 centimetres in length and is generally a chestnut brown bird with a black abdomen, metallic green back, and a short chestnut brown crest. Both sexes resemble immature Asian peafowl, with stuffed birds being erroneously classified as such before they were officially designated as members of a unique species. Like members of the Pavo genus, the Congo peafowl are omnivores with a diet consisting mainly of fruits and insects. The male has a display to that of other species of peafowl. The Congo peafowl is monogamous, though detailed mating information from the wild is still needed, the peacock of the species has a high-pitched gowe calling noise while the peahen emits a low gowah. They have loud duets consisting of rro-ho-ho-o-a from both sexes, the Congo peafowl inhabits and is endemic to the Central Congolian lowland forests of the Democratic Republic of the Congo where it has also been as designated the national bird. Due to ongoing habitat loss, small size, and hunting pressure in some areas. As of 2013 their population in the wild was estimated to be between 2,500 and 9,000 individual adults, the Antwerp Zoo in Belgium and another at the Salonga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have started captive breeding programs. Green peafowl Indian peafowl Images and movies of the Congo Peacock — ARKive BirdLife Species Factsheet Congo Peacock —gbwf. org Kimball, R. T, Braun, resolution of the phylogenetic position of the Congo Peafowl, Afropavo congensis, a biogeographic and evolutionary enigma

36.
North Atlantic
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The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the worlds oceans with a total area of about 106,460,000 square kilometres. It covers approximately 20 percent of the Earths surface and about 29 percent of its surface area. It separates the Old World from the New World, the Atlantic Ocean occupies an elongated, S-shaped basin extending longitudinally between Eurasia and Africa to the east, and the Americas to the west. The Equatorial Counter Current subdivides it into the North Atlantic Ocean, in contrast, the term Atlantic originally referred specifically to the Atlas Mountains in Morocco and the sea off the Strait of Gibraltar and the North African coast. The Greek word thalassa has been reused by scientists for the huge Panthalassa ocean that surrounded the supercontinent Pangaea hundreds of years ago. The term Aethiopian Ocean, derived from Ancient Ethiopia, was applied to the Southern Atlantic as late as the mid-19th century, many Irish or British people refer to the United States and Canada as across the pond, and vice versa. The Black Atlantic refers to the role of ocean in shaping black peoples history. Irish migration to the US is meant when the term The Green Atlantic is used, the term Red Atlantic has been used in reference to the Marxian concept of an Atlantic working class, as well as to the Atlantic experience of indigenous Americans. Correspondingly, the extent and number of oceans and seas varies, the Atlantic Ocean is bounded on the west by North and South America. It connects to the Arctic Ocean through the Denmark Strait, Greenland Sea, Norwegian Sea, to the east, the boundaries of the ocean proper are Europe, the Strait of Gibraltar and Africa. In the southeast, the Atlantic merges into the Indian Ocean, the 20° East meridian, running south from Cape Agulhas to Antarctica defines its border. In the 1953 definition it extends south to Antarctica, while in later maps it is bounded at the 60° parallel by the Southern Ocean, the Atlantic has irregular coasts indented by numerous bays, gulfs, and seas. Including these marginal seas the coast line of the Atlantic measures 111,866 km compared to 135,663 km for the Pacific. Including its marginal seas, the Atlantic covers an area of 106,460,000 km2 or 23. 5% of the ocean and has a volume of 310,410,900 km3 or 23. 3%. Excluding its marginal seas, the Atlantic covers 81,760,000 km2 and has a volume of 305,811,900 km3, the North Atlantic covers 41,490,000 km2 and the South Atlantic 40,270,000 km2. The average depth is 3,646 m and the maximum depth, the bathymetry of the Atlantic is dominated by a submarine mountain range called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It runs from 87°N or 300 km south of the North Pole to the subantarctic Bouvet Island at 42°S, the MAR divides the Atlantic longitudinally into two halves, in each of which a series of basins are delimited by secondary, transverse ridges. The MAR reaches above 2000 m along most of its length, the MAR is a barrier for bottom water, but at these two transform faults deep water currents can pass from one side to the other

37.
Runaway climate change
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Runaway climate change or runaway global warming is hypothesized to follow a tipping point in the climate system, after accumulated climate change initiates a reinforcing positive feedback. This is thought to cause the climate to change until it reaches a new stable condition. These phrases may be used with reference to concerns about global warming. Some astronomers use the expression runaway greenhouse effect to describe a situation where the climate deviates catastrophically and permanently from the original state—as happened on Venus. At a tipping level or tipping point the climate forcing reaches a point such that no additional forcing is required for climate change. At a point of no return, climate impacts that are irreversible on a time scale occur. An example of such an impact is the disintegration of an ice sheet. The runaway greenhouse effect has several meanings, at the least extreme, this implies global warming sufficient to induce out-of-control amplifying feedbacks, such as ice sheet disintegration and melting of methane hydrates. At the most extreme, a Venus-like planet with crustal carbon baked into the atmosphere and a temperature of several hundred degrees. Between these two is the moist greenhouse, which if the climate forcing is large enough to make water vapour a major atmospheric constituent. However, simulations indicate that no plausible human-made greenhouse gas forcing can cause an instability, conceivable levels of human-made climate forcing could yield the low-end runaway greenhouse. A forcing of 12–16 W m−2 would require carbon dioxide levels to increase 8–16 times, if the forcing were due only to CO2 change, this would raise the global mean temperature by 16–24 °C with much larger polar warming. A warming of 16–24 °C produces a moderately moist greenhouse, with water vapour increasing to about 1% of the atmospheres mass, thus increasing the rate of hydrogen escape to space. If such a forcing were due to CO2, the weathering process would remove the excess atmospheric CO2 on a time scale of 104–105 years. Venus-like conditions on the Earth require a large long-term forcing that is unlikely to occur until the sun brightens by a few tenths of a percent, burning all fossil fuels would adversely affect the ability of humans to live on the planet. The remaining forcing requires approximately 4, calculated global warming in this case is 16 °C, with warming at the poles approximately 30 °C. Calculated warming over land areas averages approximately 20 °C, such temperatures would eliminate grain production in almost all agricultural regions in the world. Increased stratospheric water vapour would diminish the stratospheric ozone layer, global warming of that magnitude would make most of the planet uninhabitable by humans

38.
World Bank
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The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to countries of the world for capital programs. It comprises two institutions, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the International Development Association, the World Bank is a component of the World Bank Group, which is part of the United Nations system. The World Banks stated official goal is the reduction of poverty, the president of the World Bank is, traditionally, an American. The World Bank and the IMF are both based in Washington, D. C. and work closely with each other, although many countries were represented at the Bretton Woods Conference, the United States and United Kingdom were the most powerful in attendance and dominated the negotiations. Before 1974 the reconstruction and development loans provided by the World Bank were relatively small, the Banks staff were aware of the need to instill confidence in the bank. Fiscal conservatism ruled, and loan applications had to meet strict criteria, the first country to receive a World Bank loan was France. The Banks president at the time, John McCloy, chose France over two other applicants, Poland and Chile, the loan was for US$250 million, half the amount requested, and it came with strict conditions. France had to agree to produce a budget and give priority of debt repayment to the World Bank over other governments. World Bank staff closely monitored the use of the funds to ensure that the French government met the conditions. In addition, before the loan was approved, the United States State Department told the French government that its members associated with the Communist Party would first have to be removed, the French government complied with this diktat and removed the Communist coalition government - the so-called tripartisme. Within hours, the loan to France was approved, when the Marshall Plan went into effect in 1947, many European countries began receiving aid from other sources. Faced with this competition, the World Bank shifted its focus to non-European countries, in 1960, the International Development Association was formed, providing soft loans to developing countries. From 1974 to 1980 the bank concentrated on meeting the needs of people in the developing world. The size and number of loans to borrowers was greatly increased as loan targets expanded from infrastructure into social services and these changes can be attributed to Robert McNamara, who was appointed to the presidency in 1968 by Lyndon B. Johnson. McNamara implored bank treasurer Eugene Rotberg to seek out new sources of capital outside of the banks that had been the primary sources of funding. Rotberg used the bond market to increase the capital available to the bank. One consequence of the period of poverty alleviation lending was the rise of third world debt. From 1976 to 1980 developing world debt rose at an annual rate of 20%

39.
Greenpeace
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Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over 40 countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. It uses direct action, lobbying, research, and ecotage to achieve its goals, the global organization does not accept funding from governments, corporations, or political parties, relying on 2.9 million individual supporters and foundation grants. Greenpeace is known for its actions and has been described as the most visible environmental organization in the world. Greenpeace has raised environmental issues to public knowledge, and influenced both the private and the public sector, in the late 1960s, the U. S. had plans for an underground nuclear weapon test in the tectonically unstable island of Amchitka in Alaska. Because of the 1964 Alaska earthquake, the plans raised concerns of the test triggering earthquakes. A1969 demonstration of 7,000 people blocked a major U. S. –Canada border crossing in British Columbia and its Your Fault If Our Fault Goes. The protests did not stop the U. S. from detonating the bomb, while no earthquake or tsunami followed the test, the opposition grew when the U. S. announced they would detonate a bomb five times more powerful than the first one. Among the opposers were Jim Bohlen, a veteran who had served in the U. S. Navy, and Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, as members of the Sierra Club Canada, they were frustrated by the lack of action by the organization. From Irving Stowe, Jim Bohlen learned of a form of resistance, bearing witness. Jim Bohlens wife Marie came up with the idea to sail to Amchitka, the idea ended up in the press and was linked to The Sierra Club. The Sierra Club did not like this connection and in 1970 The Dont Make a Wave Committee was established for the protest, early meetings were held in the Shaughnessy home of Robert Hunter and his wife Bobbi Hunter. Subsequently, the Stowe home at 2775 Courtenay Street became the headquarters, as Rex Weyler put it in his chronology, Greenpeace, in 1969, Irving and Dorothy Stowes quiet home on Courtenay Street would soon become a hub of monumental, global significance. Some of the first Greenpeace meetings were held there, the first office was opened in a backroom, storefront on Cypress and West Broadway SE corner in Kitsilano, Vancouver. Within half a year Greenpeace would move in to share the office space with The Society Promoting Environmental Conservation at 4th. Irving Stowe arranged a concert that took place on October 16,1970 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver. The concert created the basis for the first Greenpeace campaign. Amchitka, the 1970 concert that launched Greenpeace was published by Greenpeace in November 2009 on CD and is available as an mp3 download via the Amchitka concert website. Using the money raised with the concert, the Dont Make a Wave Committee chartered a ship, the ship was renamed Greenpeace for the protest after a term coined by activist Bill Darnell

40.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state‍—‌the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government

41.
Stellenbosch University
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Stellenbosch University is a public research university situated in Stellenbosch, a town in South Africa. Stellenbosch University designed and manufactured Africas first microsatellite, SUNSAT, launched in 1999, Stellenbosch University was the first African university to sign the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities. The students of Stellenbosch University are nicknamed Maties, the term probably arises from the Afrikaans word tamatie. An alternative theory is that the term comes from the Afrikaans colloquialism maat originally used diminutively by the students of the University of Cape Towns precursor, the South African College. The origin of the university can be traced back to the Stellenbosch Gymnasium, the first five students matriculated in 1870, but capacity did not initially exist for any tertiary education. However, in the 1870s the Cape Colonys first locally elected government took office, in 1874, a series of government acts provided for colleges and universities, with generous subsidies and staff. A personal intervention by the Prime Minister in the same year ensured that Stellenbosch qualified, later in 1874, the institution acquired its first Professor and in the coming few years its capacity and staff grew rapidly. Its first academic senate was constituted at the beginning of 1876, the first MA degree was completed in 1878, and also in that year, the Gymnasiums first four female students were enrolled. The institution became the Stellenbosch College in 1881 and was located at the current Arts Department, in 1887 this college was renamed Victoria College, when it acquired university status on 2 April 1918 it was renamed once again, to Stellenbosch University. Jannie Marais, a wealthy Stellenbosch farmer, bequeathed the money required before his death in 1915, there were certain conditions to his gift which included Dutch/Afrikaans having equal status to English and that the lecturers teach at least half their lectures in Dutch/Afrikaans. By 1930 very little, if any, tuition was in English, in December 2014, specialists at the University performed the first successful penis transplantation on a 21-year-old man. The university is one of three public universities in the Western Cape and one of about 20 universities in the country. Another reputable ranking system, QS World University Rankings recently ranked the university at 390 in the world, the Leiden University ranked Stellenbosch 395th out of the top 500 universities worldwide on its CWTS Leiden Ranking list of 2013. This list also ranked the university second in both South Africa and Africa, behind only the University of Cape Town, in 2012, Webometrics ranked Stellenboschs web footprint 2nd largest in Africa, again behind the University of Cape Town. The USB is also the business school in South Africa, as well as the rest of the continent. Stellenbosch, South Africas oldest town after Cape Town, is a university town with a population of about 90,000. It is located about 50 kilometres from Cape Town and is situated on the banks of the Eersterivier in the famous wine-growing region and is encircled by picturesque mountains. Teaching at Stellenbosch University is divided between the campus in Stellenbosch, the Tygerberg campus, the Bellville Park campus

42.
Emerging markets
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An emerging market is a country that has some characteristics of a developed market, but does not meet standards to be a developed market. This includes countries that may become developed markets in the future or were in the past, the term frontier market is used for developing countries with slower economies than emerging. The economies of China and India are considered to be the largest, according to The Economist, many people find the term outdated, but no new term has gained traction. Emerging market hedge fund capital reached a new level in the first quarter of 2011 of $121 billion. The four largest emerging and developing economies by either nominal or PPP-adjusted GDP are the BRIC countries, the next five largest markets are South Korea, Mexico, Indonesia, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia. Iran is also considered an emerging market, in the 1970s, less developed countries was the common term for markets that were less developed than the developed countries such as the United States, Western Europe, and Japan. These markets were supposed to provide potential for profit. This term was thought by some to be politically incorrect so the emerging market label was created, emphasizing the fluid nature of the category, political scientist Ian Bremmer defines an emerging market as a country where politics matters at least as much as economics to the markets. The research on emerging markets is diffused within management literature, more critical scholars have also studied key emerging markets like Mexico and Turkey. Julien Vercueil recently proposed a definition of the emerging economies. Catching-up growth, during at least the last decade, it has experienced an economic growth that has narrowed the income gap with advanced economies. Hence, emerging economies appears to be a by-product of the current globalization, at the beginning of the 2010s, more than 50 countries, representing 60% of the worlds population and 45% of its GDP, matched these criteria. The term rapidly developing economies is being used to denote emerging markets such as The United Arab Emirates, Chile and these countries do not share any common agenda, but some experts believe that they are enjoying an increasing role in the world economy and on political platforms. It is difficult to make an exact list of emerging markets, the best guides tend to be investment information sources like EMIS and these sources are well-informed, but the nature of investment information sources leads to two potential problems. One is an element of historicity, markets may be maintained in an index for continuity, possible examples of this are South Korea and Taiwan. In an Opalesque. TV video, hedge fund manager Jonathan Binder discusses the current, Binder says that in the future investors will not necessarily think of the traditional classifications of G10 versus emerging markets. Instead, people should look at the world as countries that are fiscally responsible, whether that country is in Europe or in South America should make no difference, making the traditional blocs of categorization irrelevant. Guégan et al. also discuss the relevance of the emerging country comparing the credit worthiness of so-called emerging countries to so-called developed countries

43.
NGO
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A non-governmental organization is a not-for-profit organization that is independent from states and international governmental organizations. They are usually funded by donations but some avoid formal funding altogether and are run primarily by volunteers, NGOs are highly diverse groups of organizations engaged in a wide range of activities, and take different forms in different parts of the world. Some may have charitable status, while others may be registered for tax exemption based on recognition of social purposes, others may be fronts for political, religious, or other interests. The number of NGOs worldwide is estimated to be 3.7 million, India is estimated to have had around 2 million NGOs in 2009, just over one NGO per 600 Indians, and many times the number of primary schools and primary health centres in India. China is estimated to have approximately 440,000 officially registered NGOs, NGOs are difficult to define, and the term NGO is not always used consistently. In some countries the term NGO is applied to an organization that in another country would be called an NPO, there are many different classifications of NGO in use. The most common focus is on orientation and level of operation, an NGOs orientation refers to the type of activities it takes on. These activities might include human rights, environmental, improving health, an NGOs level of operation indicates the scale at which an organization works, such as local, regional, national, or international. The term non-governmental organization was first coined in 1945, when the United Nations was created, later the term became used more widely. One characteristic these diverse organizations share is that their non-profit status means they are not hindered by short-term financial objectives. Accordingly, they are able to devote themselves to issues which occur across longer time horizons, such as change, malaria prevention. Public surveys reveal that NGOs often enjoy a degree of public trust. NGO/GRO types can be understood by their orientation and level of how they operate, charitable orientation often involves a top-down paternalistic effort with little participation by the beneficiaries. It includes NGOs with activities directed toward meeting the needs of the poor people, in the classical community development project, participation begins with the need definition and continues into the planning and implementation stages. There is maximum involvement of the beneficiaries with NGOs acting as facilitators, community-based organizations arise out of peoples own initiatives. They can be responsible for raising the consciousness of the poor, helping them to understand their rights in accessing needed services. City-wide organizations include organizations such as chambers of commerce and industry, coalitions of business, ethnic or educational groups, national NGOs include national organizations such as the YMCAs/YWCAs, professional associations and similar groups. Some have state and city branches and assist local NGOs and they can be responsible for funding local NGOs, institutions and projects and implementing projects

44.
OCEAN
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An ocean is a body of saline water that composes much of a planets hydrosphere. On Earth, an ocean is one of the major divisions of the World Ocean. These are, in descending order by area, the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Southern, the word sea is often used interchangeably with ocean in American English but, strictly speaking, a sea is a body of saline water partly or fully enclosed by land. The ocean contains 97% of Earths water, and oceanographers have stated that less than 5% of the World Ocean has been explored, the total volume is approximately 1.35 billion cubic kilometers with an average depth of nearly 3,700 meters. As the world ocean is the component of Earths hydrosphere, it is integral to all known life, forms part of the carbon cycle. The world ocean is the habitat of 230,000 known species, but because much of it is unexplored, the origin of Earths oceans remains unknown, oceans are thought to have formed in the Hadean period and may have been the impetus for the emergence of life. Extraterrestrial oceans may be composed of water or other elements and compounds, the only confirmed large stable bodies of extraterrestrial surface liquids are the lakes of Titan, although there is evidence for the existence of oceans elsewhere in the Solar System. Early in their histories, Mars and Venus are theorized to have had large water oceans. The Mars ocean hypothesis suggests that nearly a third of the surface of Mars was once covered by water, compounds such as salts and ammonia dissolved in water lower its freezing point so that water might exist in large quantities in extraterrestrial environments as brine or convecting ice. Unconfirmed oceans are speculated beneath the surface of many planets and natural satellites, notably. The Solar Systems giant planets are thought to have liquid atmospheric layers of yet to be confirmed compositions. Oceans may also exist on exoplanets and exomoons, including surface oceans of water within a circumstellar habitable zone. Ocean planets are a type of planet with a surface completely covered with liquid. The concept of Ōkeanós has an Indo-European connection, Greek Ōkeanós has been compared to the Vedic epithet ā-śáyāna-, predicated of the dragon Vṛtra-, who captured the cows/rivers. Related to this notion, the Okeanos is represented with a dragon-tail on some early Greek vases, though generally described as several separate oceans, these waters comprise one global, interconnected body of salt water sometimes referred to as the World Ocean or global ocean. This concept of a body of water with relatively free interchange among its parts is of fundamental importance to oceanography. The major oceanic divisions – listed below in descending order of area and volume – are defined in part by the continents, various archipelagos, Oceans are fringed by smaller, adjoining bodies of water such as seas, gulfs, bays, bights, and straits. The Mid-Oceanic Ridge of the World are connected and form the Ocean Ridge, the continuous mountain range is 65,000 km long, and the total length of the oceanic ridge system is 80,000 km long

45.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker

46.
Plate tectonics
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The theoretical model builds on the concept of continental drift developed during the first few decades of the 20th century. The geoscientific community accepted plate-tectonic theory after seafloor spreading was validated in the late 1950s, the lithosphere, which is the rigid outermost shell of a planet, is broken up into tectonic plates. The Earths lithosphere is composed of seven or eight major plates, where the plates meet, their relative motion determines the type of boundary, convergent, divergent, or transform. Earthquakes, volcanic activity, mountain-building, and oceanic trench formation occur along plate boundaries. The relative movement of the plates typically ranges from zero to 100 mm annually, tectonic plates are composed of oceanic lithosphere and thicker continental lithosphere, each topped by its own kind of crust. Along convergent boundaries, subduction carries plates into the mantle, the material lost is balanced by the formation of new crust along divergent margins by seafloor spreading. In this way, the surface of the lithosphere remains the same. This prediction of plate tectonics is also referred to as the conveyor belt principle, earlier theories, since disproven, proposed gradual shrinking or gradual expansion of the globe. Tectonic plates are able to move because the Earths lithosphere has greater strength than the underlying asthenosphere. Lateral density variations in the result in convection. Plate movement is thought to be driven by a combination of the motion of the seafloor away from the ridge and drag, with downward suction. Another explanation lies in the different forces generated by forces of the Sun. The relative importance of each of these factors and their relationship to other is unclear. The outer layers of the Earth are divided into the lithosphere and asthenosphere and this is based on differences in mechanical properties and in the method for the transfer of heat. Mechanically, the lithosphere is cooler and more rigid, while the asthenosphere is hotter, in terms of heat transfer, the lithosphere loses heat by conduction, whereas the asthenosphere also transfers heat by convection and has a nearly adiabatic temperature gradient. The key principle of plate tectonics is that the lithosphere exists as separate and distinct tectonic plates, Plate motions range up to a typical 10–40 mm/year, to about 160 mm/year. The driving mechanism behind this movement is described below, tectonic lithosphere plates consist of lithospheric mantle overlain by either or both of two types of crustal material, oceanic crust and continental crust. Average oceanic lithosphere is typically 100 km thick, its thickness is a function of its age, as passes, it conductively cools

47.
African Plate
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The African Plate is a major tectonic plate straddling the equator as well as the prime meridian. It includes much of the continent of Africa, as well as oceanic crust which lies between the continent and various surrounding ocean ridges, between 60 million years ago and 10 million years ago, the Somali Plate began rifting from the African Plate along the East African Rift. All of these are divergent or spreading boundaries with the exception of the northern boundary, the cratons are, from south to north, the Kalahari craton, Congo craton, Tanzania craton and West African craton. The cratons were widely separated in the past, but came together during the Pan-African orogeny, the cratons are connected by orogenic belts, regions of highly deformed rock where the tectonic plates have engaged. The African Plate is rifting in the interior of the African continent along the East African Rift. This rift zone separates the African Plate to the west from the Somali Plate to the east, the African Plates speed is estimated at around 2.15 cm per year. It has been moving over the past 100 million years or so in a general northeast direction and this is drawing it closer to the Eurasian Plate, causing subduction where oceanic crust is converging with continental crust. Along its northeast margin, the African Plate is bounded by the Red Sea Rift where the Arabian Plate is moving away from the African Plate. The New England hotspot in the Atlantic Ocean has probably created a line of mid- to late-Tertiary age seamounts on the African Plate. USGS - Understanding plate motions Meijer, P. Th, wortel, M. J. R. Cenozoic dynamics of the African plate with emphasis on the Africa-Eurasia collision. Journal of Geophysical Research, Solid Earth

Sedimentary rock
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Sedimentary rocks are types of rock that are formed by the deposition and subsequent cementation of that material at the Earths surface and within bodies of water. Sedimentation is the name for processes that cause mineral and/or organic particles to settle in place. The particles that form a rock by accumulating are called sediment. Sedimentation

4.
Claystone deposited in Glacial Lake Missoula, Montana, United States. Note the very fine and flat bedding, common for distal lacustrine deposition.

Drainage basin
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A drainage basin or catchment area is any area of land where precipitation collects and drains off into a common outlet, such as into a river, bay, or other body of water. Drainage basins connect into other drainage basins at elevations in a hierarchical pattern, with smaller sub-drainage basins. Other terms used to describe drainage basins are cat

1.
Animation of Latoriţa River drainage basin, Romania

2.
Example of a drainage basin. The dashed line is the main water divide of the hydrographic basin.

3.
Endorheic basin in Central Asia

4.
The Mississippi River drains the largest area of any U.S. river, much of it agricultural regions. Agricultural runoff and other water pollution that flows to the outlet is the cause of the hypoxic, or dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico.

Congo River
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The Congo River is a river in Africa. It is the second largest river in the world by discharge, the Congo-Chambeshi river has an overall length of 4,700 km, which makes it the ninth-longest river. Measured along the Lualaba, the Congo River has a length of 4,370 km. The Congo Basin has an area of about 4 million km2. The name River Congo originated

1.
Aerial view of the Congo River near Kisangani

2.
The town of Mbandaka is a busy port on the banks of the Congo River.

3.
The Congo River at Maluku.

4.
The beginning of the Livingstone Falls (Lower Congo Rapids) near Kinshasa

Central Africa
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Central Africa is the core region of the African continent which includes Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Rwanda. All of the states in the UN subregion of Middle Africa, plus those otherwise commonly reckoned in Central Africa, since its independence in 2011, South Sudan has also been commonly

1.
Abéché, capital of Wadai, in 1918 after the French had taken over

2.
Central Africa

3.
Lunda town and dwelling

4.
Fishing in Central Africa

Equator
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The Equator usually refers to an imaginary line on the Earths surface equidistant from the North Pole and South Pole, dividing the Earth into the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere. The Equator is about 40,075 kilometres long, some 78. 7% lies across water and 21. 3% over land, other planets and astronomical bodies have equators similarly

1.
Left: A monument marking the Equator near the town of Pontianak, Indonesia Right: Road sign marking the Equator near Nanyuki, Kenya

3.
The Equator marked as it crosses Ilhéu das Rolas, in São Tomé and Príncipe

Africa
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Africa is the worlds second-largest and second-most-populous continent. At about 30.3 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earths total surface area and 20.4 % of its land area. With 1.2 billion people as of 2016, it accounts for about 16% of the human population. The continent includes Madagascar and various archipelagos and it

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Map of Africa

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Africa

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Lucy, an Australopithecus afarensis skeleton discovered on November 24, 1974, in the Awash Valley of Ethiopia 's Afar Depression

East African Rift
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The East African Rift is an active continental rift zone in East Africa. The EAR began developing around the onset of the Miocene, 22–25 million years ago, in the past, it was considered to be part of a larger Great Rift Valley that extended north to Asia Minor. As extension continues, lithospheric rupture will occur within 10 million years, the So

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An artificial rendering of the Albertine Rift, which forms the western branch of the East African Rift. Visible features include (from background to foreground): Lake Albert, the Rwenzori Mountains, Lake Edward, the volcanic Virunga Mountains, Lake Kivu, and the northern part of Lake Tanganyika

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A map of East Africa showing some of the historically active volcanoes (as red triangles) and the Afar Triangle (shaded at the center), which is a so-called triple junction (or triple point) where three plates are pulling away from one another: the Arabian Plate and two parts of the African Plate —the Nubian and Somali —splitting along the East African Rift Zone.

Tropical rainforest
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True rainforests are typically found between 10 degrees north and south of the equator, they are a sub-set of the tropical forest biome that occurs roughly within the 28 degree latitudes. Within the World Wildlife Funds biome classification, tropical rainforests are a type of tropical moist broadleaf forest that includes the more extensive tropical

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An area of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil. The tropical rainforests of South America contain the largest diversity of species on earth.

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Amazon River rain forest in Peru

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Daintree rainforest in Queensland

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Western lowland gorilla

Gulf of Guinea
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The Gulf of Guinea is the northeasternmost part of the tropical Atlantic Ocean between Cape Lopez in Gabon, north and west to Cape Palmas in Liberia. The intersection of the Equator and Prime Meridian is in the gulf, among the many rivers that drain into the Gulf of Guinea are the Niger and the Volta. The coastline on the gulf includes the Bight of

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Map of the Gulf of Guinea, showing the chain of islands formed by the Cameroon line of volcanoes.

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Satellite imagery of Gulf of Guinea states.

Atlantic Ocean
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The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the worlds oceans with a total area of about 106,460,000 square kilometres. It covers approximately 20 percent of the Earths surface and about 29 percent of its surface area. It separates the Old World from the New World, the Atlantic Ocean occupies an elongated, S-shaped basin extending longitudinally be

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The Atlantic Ocean as seen from the western coast of Portugal

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The Atlantic Ocean, not including Arctic and Antarctic regions

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The Atlantic Ocean as seen from Atlantic City, New Jersey.

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Myrtle Beach, South Carolina view of the Atlantic Ocean.

Western lowland gorilla
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It is the gorilla most often found in zoos. The western lowland gorilla is the smallest subspecies of gorilla but nevertheless still a primate of exceptional size and this species of gorillas exhibits pronounced sexual dimorphism. They possess no tails and have jet black skin along with black hair that covers their entire body except for the face,

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Western lowland gorilla

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Skull of a male subject

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Bronx Zoo

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Snowflake, in the Barcelona Zoo

Congo Pygmies
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Most Pygmy communities are partially hunter-gatherers, living partially but not exclusively on the wild products of their environment. They trade with neighbouring farmers to acquire cultivated foods and other material items and it is estimated that there are between 250,000 and 600,000 Pygmies living in the Congo rainforest. However, although Pygm

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African pygmies and a European explorer.

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Baka dancers in the East Province of Cameroon.

Bantu peoples
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Bantu peoples is used as a general label for the 300–600 ethnic groups in Africa who speak Bantu languages. They inhabit an area stretching east and southward from Central Africa across the African Great Lakes region down to Southern Africa. Bantu is a branch of the Niger-Congo language family spoken by most populations in Africa. There are about 6

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A Kikuyu woman in Kenya

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Bantu peoples divided into zones according to the Guthrie classification of Bantu languages.

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Kongo youth and adults in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo

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A Makua mother and child in Mozambique

Bantu expansion
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The Bantu expansion is the name for a postulated millennia-long series of migrations of speakers of the original proto-Bantu language group. The primary evidence for this expansion has been linguistic, namely that the languages spoken in Sub-Equatorial Africa are remarkably similar to each other, the Bantu traveled in two waves, the first across th

Kingdom of Kongo
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At its greatest extent, it reached from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Kwango River in the east, and from the Congo River in the north to the Kwanza River in the south. From c.1390 to 1891 it was mostly an independent state, from 1891 to 1914 it was a vassal state of the Kingdom of Portugal. In 1914, the monarchy was forcibly abolished, foll

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The "Kingdom of Congo" (now usually rendered as "Kingdom of Kongo" to maintain distinction from the present-day Kongo nations)

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Flag

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João I Nzinga a Nkuwu

Belgian colonial empire
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The Belgian colonial empire comprised three colonies controlled by Belgium between 1885 and 1962, Belgian Congo, Ruanda-Urundi and a concession in China. Belgians tended to refer to their overseas possessions as the rather than the empire. Unlike other European empires of the period, such as the British or German Empires, Belgium received its indep

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A white missionary posing with Congolese man, mutilated by the Congo Free State government

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Flag

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African troops recruited by the Congo Free State

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Force Publique soldiers from the Belgian Congo in World War II

French colonial empire
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The French colonial empire constituted the overseas colonies, protectorates and mandate territories that came under French rule from the 16th century onward. The second empire came to an end after the loss of bitter wars in Vietnam and Algeria, competing with Spain, Portugal, the United Provinces, and later Britain, France began to establish coloni

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French Northern America was known as 'Nouvelle France' or New France

Portuguese Empire
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The Portuguese Empire, also known as the Portuguese Overseas, was one of the largest and longest-lived empires in world history and the first colonial empire. It existed for almost six centuries from the capture of Ceuta in 1415 to the grant of sovereignty to East Timor in 2002, the first era of the Portuguese empire originated at the beginning of

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The Conquest of Ceuta, in 1415, was led by Henry the Navigator, and initiated the Portuguese Empire.

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Map of Western Africa by Lázaro Luis (1563). The large castle in West Africa represents the São Jorge da Mina (Elmina castle).

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Vasco da Gama 's departure to India, in 1497

Colonialism in Africa
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The history of external colonization of Africa can be divided into two stages, Classical antiquity and European colonialism. In popular parlance, discussions of colonialism in Africa usually focus on the European conquests that resulted in the scramble for Africa after the Berlin Conference in the 19th century. In nearly all African countries today

General Act of the Berlin Conference
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The conference ushered in a period of heightened colonial activity by European powers, which eliminated or overrode most existing forms of African autonomy and self-governance. Before the conference, European diplomacy treated African indigenous people in the manner as the New World natives. By the mid-19th century, Europeans considered Africa to b

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The conference of Berlin

First World War
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts i

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Clockwise from the top: The aftermath of shelling during the Battle of the Somme, Mark V tanks cross the Hindenburg Line, HMS Irresistible sinks after hitting a mine in the Dardanelles, a British Vickers machine gun crew wears gas masks during the Battle of the Somme, Albatros D.III fighters of Jagdstaffel 11

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Sarajevo citizens reading a poster with the proclamation of the Austrian annexation in 1908.

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This picture is usually associated with the arrest of Gavrilo Princip, although some believe it depicts Ferdinand Behr, a bystander.

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Serbian Army Blériot XI "Oluj", 1915.

African Great Lakes
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The African Great Lakes are a series of lakes constituting the part of the Rift Valley lakes in and around the East African Rift. They include Lake Victoria, the second-largest fresh water lake in the world by area, and Lake Tanganyika, collectively, they contain 31,000 km3 of water, which is more than either Lake Baikal or the North American Great

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Satellite view of the African Great Lakes region and its coastline.

Angola
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Angola /æŋˈɡoʊlə/, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country in Southern Africa. It is the seventh-largest country in Africa and is bordered by Namibia to the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Zambia to the east, and the Atlantic Ocean to west. The exclave province of Cabinda has borders with the Republic of the Congo,

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An image depicting Portuguese encounter with Kongo Royal family

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Flag

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Portuguese troops heading for Angola during World War I.

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Monument to the memory of Agostinho Neto and the Angolan struggle for independence, in Luanda

Burundi
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It is also considered part of Central Africa. The southwestern border is adjacent to Lake Tanganyika, the Twa, Hutu and Tutsi peoples have lived in Burundi for at least 500 years. For more than 200 of those years, Burundi was an independent kingdom, until the beginning of the twentieth century, after the First World War and Germanys defeat, it cede

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Independence Square and monument in Bujumbura.

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Flag

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View of the capital city Bujumbura in 2006.

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Pierre Nkurunziza, President of Burundi.

Cameroon
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Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Cameroons coastline lies on the Bight of Biafra, part of the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean. French and English are the languages

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Bamum script

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Flag

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Former president Ahmadou Ahidjo ruled from 1960 until 1982.

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A statue of a chief in Bana, West Region.

Central African Republic
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The Central African Republic is a landlocked country in Central Africa. The CAR covers a area of about 620,000 square kilometres and had an estimated population of around 4.7 million as of 2014. Most of the CAR consists of Sudano-Guinean savannas, but the country includes a Sahelo-Sudanian zone in the north. Two thirds of the country is within the

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Charles de Gaulle in Bangui, 1940.

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Flag

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Rebel militia in the northern countryside, 2007.

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Eland armoured car of the Central African Multinational Force patrols the streets of Bangui in December 2013.

Democratic Republic of the Congo
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The Democratic Republic of the Congo, also known as DR Congo, DRC, DROC, East Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo is a country located in Central Africa. From 1971 to 1997 it was named, and is still called, Zaire. It is the second-largest country in Africa by area and eleventh largest in the world, the Congolese Civil Wars, which began in 19

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Village attacked by Arab-Swahili slavers near Nyangwe, end of 19th century

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Flag

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View of Leopoldville Station and Port in 1884.

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Force Publique soldiers in the Belgian Congo in 1918. At its peak, the Force Publique had around 19,000 African soldiers, led by 420 white officers.

Republic of the Congo
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The Republic of the Congo, also known as the Congo Republic, West Congo, Congo-Brazzaville or simply Congo, is a country located in Central Africa. The region was dominated by Bantu-speaking tribes, who built trade links leading into the Congo River basin, Congo-Brazzaville was formerly part of the French colony of Equatorial Africa. Upon independe

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Marien Ngouabi changed the country's name to the People's Republic of the Congo, declaring it to be Africa 's first Marxist–Leninist state and was assassinated in 1977.

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Denis Sassou Nguesso served as President from 1979 to 1992 and has remained in power ever since his rebel forces ousted President Pascal Lissouba during the 1997 Civil War.

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Cassava is an important food crop in the Republic of Congo.

Rwanda
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Rwanda, officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a sovereign state in central and east Africa and one of the smallest countries on the African mainland. Located a few south of the Equator, Rwanda is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi. Rwanda is in the African Great Lakes region and is elevated, its geography is dominated by mountains in the west an

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A reconstruction of the King of Rwanda 's palace at Nyanza

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Flag

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Juvénal Habyarimana, president from 1973 to 1994

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Human skulls at the Nyamata Genocide Memorial

South Sudan
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South Sudan, officially the Republic of South Sudan, is a landlocked country in northeastern Africa that gained its independence from Sudan in 2011. Its current capital is Juba, which is also its largest city and it was planned that the capital city would be changed to the more centrally located Ramciel in the future before civil war broke out. It

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John Garang de Mabior led the Sudan People's Liberation Army until his death in 2005.

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Flag

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A South Sudanese girl at independence festivities

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Salva Kiir Mayardit, the first President of South Sudan. His trademark hat was a gift from United States President George W. Bush.

Tanzania
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Tanzania /ˌtænzəˈniːə/, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in Eastern Africa within the African Great Lakes region. Parts of the country are in Southern Africa, Mount Kilimanjaro, Africas highest mountain, is in northeastern Tanzania. Tanzanias population of 51.82 million is diverse, composed of ethnic, linguistic. Dar es Sala

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An ancient stone chopping tool discovered at Olduvai Gorge and currently on display at the British Museum

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Flag

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General Lettow-Vorbeck in Dar es Salaam with a British Officer (left) and German Officer (right), March 1919

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Arusha Declaration Monument

Zambia
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The capital city is Lusaka, in the south-central part of Zambia. The population is concentrated mainly around Lusaka in the south and the Copperbelt Province to the northwest, originally inhabited by Khoisan peoples, the region was affected by the Bantu expansion of the thirteenth century. After visits by European explorers in the century, Zambia b

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A statue of Scottish explorer and missionary David Livingstone on the Zambian side of Victoria Falls.

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Flag

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Cecil Rhodes

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Mwata Kazembe XVII Paul Kanyembo Lutaba, king of the Lunda people in Zambia in 1961.

Okapi
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The okapi is a giraffid artiodactyl mammal native to the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Central Africa. Although the okapi bears striped markings reminiscent of zebras, it is most closely related to the giraffe, the okapi and the giraffe are the only living members of the family Giraffidae. The okapi stands about 1.5 m tall at

Bonobo
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The bonobo is distinguished by relatively long legs, pink lips, dark face and tail-tuft through adulthood, and parted long hair on its head. The bonobo is found in a 500,000 km2 area of the Congo Basin in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the species is omnivorous and inhabits primary and secondary forests, including seasonally inundated swamp

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Female bonobo

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Bonobos are very social

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Bonobo searching for termites

Congo peafowl
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The Congo peafowl, known as the mbulu by the Congolese, is a species of peafowl native to the Congo Basin. It is one of three extant species of peafowl, the two being the Indian peafowl and the green peafowl. Very little is known about this species and it was only recorded as a species in 1936 by Dr. James Chapin after his failed search for the elu

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Congo peafowl

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Male

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Upper body of male

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Female at the Milwaukee County Zoological Gardens

North Atlantic
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The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the worlds oceans with a total area of about 106,460,000 square kilometres. It covers approximately 20 percent of the Earths surface and about 29 percent of its surface area. It separates the Old World from the New World, the Atlantic Ocean occupies an elongated, S-shaped basin extending longitudinally be

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The Atlantic Ocean as seen from the western coast of Portugal

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The Atlantic Ocean, not including Arctic and Antarctic regions

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The Atlantic Ocean as seen from Atlantic City, New Jersey.

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Myrtle Beach, South Carolina view of the Atlantic Ocean.

Runaway climate change
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Runaway climate change or runaway global warming is hypothesized to follow a tipping point in the climate system, after accumulated climate change initiates a reinforcing positive feedback. This is thought to cause the climate to change until it reaches a new stable condition. These phrases may be used with reference to concerns about global warmin

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The record-breaking decline of Arctic Sea ice has been reported as a "tipping point"

World Bank
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The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to countries of the world for capital programs. It comprises two institutions, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the International Development Association, the World Bank is a component of the World Bank Group, which is part of the United Natio

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John Maynard Keynes (right) and Harry Dexter White, the "founding fathers" of both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

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The Gold Room at the Mount Washington Hotel where the IMF and World Bank were established

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The World Bank Group headquarters bldg. in Washington, D.C.

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Jim Yong Kim, the current President of the World Bank Group

Greenpeace
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Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over 40 countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. It uses direct action, lobbying, research, and ecotage to achieve its goals, the global organization does not accept funding from governments, corporations, or political parties, re

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Greenpeace protest against Esso / ExxonMobil

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MV Esperanza, a former fire-fighter owned by the Russian Navy, was relaunched by Greenpeace in 2002

United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border wi

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Stonehenge, in Wiltshire, was erected around 2500 BC.

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Flag

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The Bayeux Tapestry depicts the Battle of Hastings, 1066, and the events leading to it.

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The Treaty of Union led to a single united kingdom encompassing all Great Britain.

Stellenbosch University
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Stellenbosch University is a public research university situated in Stellenbosch, a town in South Africa. Stellenbosch University designed and manufactured Africas first microsatellite, SUNSAT, launched in 1999, Stellenbosch University was the first African university to sign the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Hu

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The Ou Hoofgebou (Former Main Administration building, now the Law Faculty) on Stellenbosch University campus

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Stellenbosch University

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View over the "Red Square" of Stellenbosch University with the peak,"The Twins" beyond

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The university's Tygerberg medical campus, viewed from the air

Emerging markets
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An emerging market is a country that has some characteristics of a developed market, but does not meet standards to be a developed market. This includes countries that may become developed markets in the future or were in the past, the term frontier market is used for developing countries with slower economies than emerging. The economies of China

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Newly industrialized countries as of 2013. This is an intermediate category between fully developed and developing.

NGO
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A non-governmental organization is a not-for-profit organization that is independent from states and international governmental organizations. They are usually funded by donations but some avoid formal funding altogether and are run primarily by volunteers, NGOs are highly diverse groups of organizations engaged in a wide range of activities, and t

OCEAN
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An ocean is a body of saline water that composes much of a planets hydrosphere. On Earth, an ocean is one of the major divisions of the World Ocean. These are, in descending order by area, the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Southern, the word sea is often used interchangeably with ocean in American English but, strictly speaking, a sea is a body of sal

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Two models for the composition of Europa predict a large subsurface ocean of liquid water. Similar models have been proposed for other celestial bodies in the Solar System

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Diagram showing a possible internal structure of Ceres

International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning

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A 13-digit ISBN, 978-3-16-148410-0, as represented by an EAN-13 bar code

Plate tectonics
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The theoretical model builds on the concept of continental drift developed during the first few decades of the 20th century. The geoscientific community accepted plate-tectonic theory after seafloor spreading was validated in the late 1950s, the lithosphere, which is the rigid outermost shell of a planet, is broken up into tectonic plates. The Eart

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Remnants of the Farallon Plate, deep in Earth's mantle. It is thought that much of the plate initially went under North America (particularly the western United States and southwest Canada) at a very shallow angle, creating much of the mountainous terrain in the area (particularly the southern Rocky Mountains).

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The tectonic plates of the world were mapped in the second half of the 20th century.

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Plate motion based on Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite data from NASA JPL. The vectors show direction and magnitude of motion.

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Alfred Wegener in Greenland in the winter of 1912-13.

African Plate
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The African Plate is a major tectonic plate straddling the equator as well as the prime meridian. It includes much of the continent of Africa, as well as oceanic crust which lies between the continent and various surrounding ocean ridges, between 60 million years ago and 10 million years ago, the Somali Plate began rifting from the African Plate al

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Extent of the Arabian-Nubian Shield. To the west it borders the Saharan Metacraton. Colors indicate the age of the rocks (Archean, Pre-Neoproterozoic, Mesoproterozoic, Neoproterozoic).

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Astronaut photograph (ISS006-E-43186) of the Arabian-Nubian Shield in eastern Sudan, looking NE, with the Red Sea in the background. The N-S structure in the center of the image is the Hamisana Shear Zone. The ANS exposures in eastern Egypt to the north can also be seen, as well as part of the Nile (left) and Arabia (right).

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Two processes that can contribute to an orogen. Top: delamination by intrusion of hot asthenosphere; Bottom: Subduction of ocean crust. The two processes lead to differently located granites (bubbles in diagram), providing evidence as to which process actually occurred.

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An example of thin-skinned deformation (thrust faulting) of the Sevier Orogeny in Montana. Note the white Madison Limestone repeated, with one example in the foreground (that pinches out with distance) and another to the upper right corner and top of the picture.

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Sierra Nevada Mountains (a result of delamination) as seen from the International Space Station.

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A map of South Africa showing the central plateau edged by the Great Escarpment and its relationship to the Cape Fold Mountains in the south. The portion of the Great Escarpment shown in red is known as the Drakensberg.

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A map of South Africa showing the central plateau edged by the Great Escarpment and its relationship to the Cape Fold Mountains to the south. The portion of the Great Escarpment shown in red is known as the Drakensberg.